Tomorrow I'm going on another camping expedition around Northland, stopping first for a few days in KeriKeri at a riverside campground before continuing on to Spirits Bay on the Aupouri Peninsula, the very Northern most tip of the North Island.

I fell in love with Northland years ago when me and my old mate Brad and his scallywag uncle - while puffing on an endless supply of green and listening to Mr Marley - did a circular roadtrip up the East Coast all the way to Te Reinga and then down the West Coast back to Tamaki Makaurau.

As we drove up the thin peninsula - in places the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean are visible in each direction - the song Natural Mystic was speaking to me, which along with the vistas and the effects of a smoke trap, made the whole journey something of an elated religious experience.

Ever since, the far North occupies a special place in my heart and while I don't smoke green anymore, I always play my man Bob once I hit that last stretch of road before Aotearoa melts into the crashing waves of the two mighty bodies of water.

Last year me and Juliana made the pilgrimage to Te Reinga, but only stayed a few hours. This year we're going to camp for a week at the DOC campground at Spirits Bay with our friends Sarah and Daniel and there little boy Wu. While no green will be blazed, the grassy and herbaceous flavours of many a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc will indeed be relished.

I will not be taking my laptop with me on the journey, or login to facebook, even once, I promise, but we'll have to see about that because, at the same time, I don't want anyone to forget about me. Me!

Instead, to leave all that behind, I'm resorting to writing - short stories and poetry most likely - with a silly pen and a stylish writing pad.

I'm taking Robert Fisk's book Great War for Civilisation: The conquest of the Middle East and John Pilger's book Heroes to keep me cheery and one other book, about positive psychology, to balance things out.

When I return, I'm moving house again, starting a postgraduate diploma in journalism, completing a research project I'm doing with Mr E Martini, playing basketball every evening with my homies at Owairaka park and most likely continuing to hang with my little mate Zephyr once a week.

But for now it's bon-voyage, it's time to turn you off and press play on Bob.

There’s a lot to love about America – the movies, the music, the two Michael's - Jackson and Jordan, high fluting oratory, free speech (just watch what you say), NASA, its literary tradition, California and of course the people  – but unfortunately, despite all of what's good about the 'home of the free', it's a nation many commentators fear is sleepwalking into a fascist-military state due to an interlocked political-corporate establishment that's - in the language of Hollywood - become more akin to Agent Smith of the Matrix than the John McLane American hero archetypes of my childhood.

The apparent inability (or unwillingness) of the world's only superpower to offer its island neighbour Haiti enough humanitarian aid after the earthquake is illuminating when juxtaposed with the news that U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, met with the the bigwigs from the military-industrial complex last week and promised to forge a "closer partnership" and “to work with the White House to secure steady growth in the Pentagon's budgets over time.”

The projected U.S. defense budget for 2010 is $880 billion dollars  - and it always turns out to be more - which is about the same amount of military expenditure as the rest of the world put together. Actually, if you include all the other related endeavours - such as Homeland Security, the new 'command' embassies in Pakistan and Iraq - then the figure is closer to $1 trillion dollars, per year. According to one defense analyst, the 2011 budget will be the highest military budget since WW2 and higher than the average budget in the cold war. What's even more alarming, as quoted above, the Secretary of Defense has pledged to the Bombs & Guns companies he will secure "steady growth in the Pentagon's budgets over time.”

In President Eisenhower's 1960 Farewell Address, he explicitly warned his nation about the serious danger that the military-industrial complex posed to American society. (See video below)

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

America is increasingly being driven by an ideology of militarism and, as a result, is becoming increasingly militarised. America's Hawks usually argue that the percentage of the GDP spent each year on defense is only about 4 percent, but the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) point out that pegging defense spending to the GDP is misleading because it doesn't explain how military expenditure translates to income tax or indicate what should, rather than could, be spent on defense.

The FCNL calculate that, in terms of income tax, 42 percent "is the estimated portion of federal income taxes that taxpayers paid for past wars and the military in fiscal year 2005."

Then there is the issue of what should, not could, be spent on defense. And this is where America's increasing militarism becomes a critical issue when also considering its long record of state violence and terror. Beyond the American establishment's rhetoric about democracy, human rights, freedom and liberty, it's historic record clearly shows a Machiavellian tradition that puts state and particularly U.S. corporate interests above these espoused principles to the extent that it's willing to brutally suppress them, either by its own military or through one of its beloved dictators and his henchman.

Scroll down America's record of shame and you will come to see the small impoverished island of Haiti listed as one of many places in the world that have listened to America pontificate about democracy, freedom and the dangers of communism while having various forms of violence visited upon it by or thanks to that same 'beacon of democracy'.

In the 1950's the U.S. supported the dictator François Duvalier on the condition that a 'favourable investment climate' be maintained for the benefit of U.S. corporations. A favourable investment climate includes: no custom taxes, a very low minimum wage, the suppression of labour unions and the right of foreign companies to repatriate their profits. During this windfall time for U.S. business interests, Duvalier's government was one of the most repressive in the world, with over 30,000 political murders during his reign of torture and terror.

After four decades of U.S. exploitation, to the disappointment of the U.S. establishment, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a Catholic priest, won the 1990 Haitian national elections with a stunning 67.5 percent of the vote, defeating the U.S. backed candidate, Marc Bazin, a former World Bank official. Aristide was the first democratically elected president in the history of Haiti, but before he had a chance to lead his people away from their nation's story of tyranny to a more equitable and just time, he was overthrown by a standard tactic America has successfully employed all over the world: a right-wing military coup.

In the months after the coup, the Haitian army killed well over 1000 people in order to destroy the grassroots organisations that helped to bring Aristide to power. Emmanuel Constant, an Ex CIA employee, who led the Haitian paramilitary forces was quoted as saying that a U.S. military officer told him to 'balance the Aristide movement' and to conduct 'intelligence' work against it. Constant also admitted he was working for CIA operatives in Haiti.  When the Organisation of American States responded to the violent and undemocratic coup with an embargo and sanctions, the U.S. immediately exempted 800 of its own firms.

After the coup leaders had destroyed most of the grassroots movement that had supported Father Aristide, the U.S. returned him - he had been forced into exile following the coup - along with some 20,000 troops to maintain 'order'. He was only allowed to return once he agreed to U.S. military occupation and a neo-liberal economic agenda that would ensure the continuing profits of U.S. firms. Now, when Haiti's crippling poverty is exacerbated by an equally crippling earthquake, America's main response - suprise, suprise - is an escalating military intervention rather than what could and should be a massive humanitarian aid effort.

Haiti is but one among many examples of the U.S. supporting a brutal fascist regime at the expense of democracy, social equity and justice for the benefit of its corporate interests. When considering this true history of America - rather than the filtered propaganda version - its current militarisation and illegal and immoral wars in Afghanistan and Iraq become even more disturbing.

America has no interest in democracy and human rights in the Middle East - if it did it would do something about Israel's violent oppression of the Palestinians trapped in the walled ghetto called Gaza. Its interests are the same as they have always been throughout its long history of shame - whether its history in Vietnam (spare me the 'stop communism' dribble), Indonesia, or Latin America - the guiding principle is not the ideals it's founding fathers outlined in the constitution, but corporate and strategic dominance. The Middle East is high value on both corporate and strategic counts for the same reason; oil, oil, oil - the oil supply and waterways and pipe options to get that oil to where money can be made.

Since 9/11, to fight the 'war on terror', America has declared its right to pre-emptive strikes, built and sophisticated its already massive superior military, bombed civilian populations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, continued to militarily support an increasingly violent Israel and paramilitary groups in South America, abducted people off the streets, tortured them and held them in secret locations and without charge or trial and with scant or suspect evidence. Since the begining of the Afganistan bombing campaign, America has been responsible for deaths of nearly 800,000 civilians. Rather than stop the spread of terror, America has itself become the terror. Rather than eliminate its enemies, America's global violence and human rights violations have made it more enemies than its ever had before.

Along with the Secretary of Defense promising to increase military budgets for years to come,  the U.S is still threatening Iran and American commandos and the CIA are now operating in Yemen because these nations are a 'danger to world peace' or risk becoming a 'safe haven for terrorists'. Of course it has nothing to do with corporate or strategic domination.

So the question is: what's wrong with America? Why is it becoming a fascist-military state with a useless 'Tweedledee-Tweedledum political system that's beholden to elite corporate interests rather than the masses of everyday Americans?

Most of us accept - bar the hordes of religious fundamentalists - the need for the separation of church and state, as Larry Allen Brown explains, is to ensure a pluralistic society and "that no amount of favoritism is shown through legislation to any one belief, in preference to any other" so as "to create an environment in which all religious beliefs compete with each on a level playing field based on their own merits."

But what about the separation of corporate power and the state? Surely it's obvious that without such a wall of separation, favouritism towards the elite and oligarchical corporate powers will manifest through 'legislation' and lead to a very 'sloped playing field' in which the wealth is increasingly possessed by the few at the expense of the many.

This is America's problem: corporate domination of the political system.

The military-industrial complex - massive merchants of death like Lockhead Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Raytheon and General Dynamics - are part of that corporate system and exist to make ever increasing profits which means that war is in their economic interest in much the same way as getting more people to take up jogging is in the economic interests of running shoe companies. Indeed, the companies of the military-industrial complex are the heavies that operate on behalf of America's overall corporate community. They are the stand over guys that protect and expand the turf of corporate America.

Because of the economic power of the American corporatocracy the political system has come to represent its interests rather than that of mainstream America. This is a result of the lack of separation of the corporate system and the state. Unless and until America establish a wall between the two, it will continue to terrorise any unfortunate nation that tries to resist its insatiable lust for natural resources it identifies as desirable. What's more, the American people themselves will increasingly be victimised by invasive and undemocratic laws that limit their power, such as The Patriot Act, Executive Privilege and by the profit-logic of companies keen to drive down wages or outsource jobs to foreign countries with cheap labour.

Just this week the Supreme Court in the Citizens United case removed all limits on large corporations to finance and influence federal elections. This means that big companies can now openly run political adverts to support the party that benefits them.

In a decision that could have a profound impact on future elections, the court overturned a 20-year-old ruling that barred businesses from paying for campaign adverts. The decision in what is known as the Citizens United case will allow big businesses – such those selling arms, drugs or insurance companies – that already wield influence through lobby groups to openly back favoured candidates who support their interests.
- Guardian

Notice the above quote mentions arms companies. Lockheed Martin - Vice President Dick Cheney's wife once sat on its board - the biggest company in the military-industrial complex, will now be able to use its considerable financial power to campaign  on behalf of the presidential candidate who promises to make good on the pledge to 'forge a closer relationship' and to keep defense budgets growing. This is America's problem and is why it's fast becoming a fascist-military state and a danger to world peace and human rights.

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes … known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
— James Madison, Political Observations, 1795

We should always be grateful to America for its World War 2 efforts, but that was then and this is now. It's time that we officially recognise what America is becoming. A friend should speak the truth even when its unpalatable or unwanted.

I love watching the NBA and enjoyed James Cameron's Avatar as much as anybody, but we cannot let all the things we love about America blind us to the reality its becoming a bellicose war economy clearly intending to dominate and exploit weak or vulnerable nations for the sake of corporate profit and geo-political strategic advantage.

"Basketball is my refuge, my sanctuary. I go back to being a kid on the playground. When I get here, it's all good." - Kobe Bryant

Since the age of eight - when I'd accompany my mum to her social games where I'd try to imitate what I saw from the sidelines - I've been playing basketball. I remember watching in frustration because I knew I could do better if only they'd let a little eight year old boy play! Ever since then, as soon as I walk on a court, all my worries disappear and I enter what some people call a state of flow.

It's always been said that basketball is a thinking man's sport because its constant speed calls for total awareness and quick thinking rather than just physical strength. After years of playing, here's a few life lessons I've learned from the game. At the bottom of the post are Youtube clips related to each of the five lessons. Enjoy.

1. Be versatile, like Magic

At 6.9' Magic Johnson is the tallest point guard to ever play in the NBA and was so versatile on the court that the term 'triple double' - a phrase for when a player gets double digits in three of the five key  areas - became commonly used by NBA fans everywhere.

Scoring a triple-double - never an east feat - is the ultimate mark of basketball versatility. Magic could do it all - give stunning no-look passes, rebound like a power forward and score from anywhere, even the halfway line.

He earned the name Magic in his college years from sports writer Fred Stabley Jr. who said: "From the moment he stepped onto the basketball court, people pondered: How could a man so big do so many things with the ball and his body? It was Magic."

Versatility is defined as: "capable of turning easily from one to another of various tasks, fields of endeavor"  and is a beneficial quality to cultivate in life. Being versatile prevents us from getting stuck on one thing, being dependent on one set of skills that may not be what's needed in an ever changing environment. This also implies that the ability to recognise when a particular skill set is more useful than others is part of being versatile.

Ultimately, having versatility means have more ways to experience joy in our lives. If you can paint, play an instrument, water-ski, dance the Rumba, then you have a a handful of ways to easily tap into the joy that each of these activities offer.

2. Stay balanced

This may sound obvious, but it's one of those principles in life we easily forget about when pressure, as it often does, imperceptibly increases, as one commitment builds upon another.

In the game of basketball, learning to gain balance before shooting or leaping is one of the first lessons a coach gives a player. If a player's center of gravity is lurching in one direction - unless they're Kobe Bryant - the chances are the ball will follow suit and miss the basket by a mile. 

The key is to center oneself before leaping upwards so the vision of the hoop is level, not on an angle. Once a player learns to get his or her balance quickly, more daring odd-angled moves can be learned.

In life, we also need to be well grounded so we can learn to fly straight. We need to learn how - in our busy multi-tasking lives - to quickly find an inner balance - so our perception remains undistorted. Otherwise our vision of ourselves, our lives, what we have the capacity for can get us into stressful situations that can further throw us off course.

Learning to be balanced means being conscious of and working with five areas of ourselves: our body, mind, emotions, intellect and spirit. As best as possible, we should invest time and energy into learning about how to care for each of these aspects of ourselves.

Yoga is great for the body, pranayama meditation soothes the mind, heart-coherence practice has been scientifically proved to have good effects on the emotions, reading is good for the intellect and acting for the welfare of others cheers the spirit. There's many different ways to care for these aspects, but whatever works to help you stay balanced is fine.

3. Improve your hang time

Nobody could hang in the air like Michael Jordan. He spent most of his time playing basketball in the air, which is why he earned the name Air Jordan. Learning to hang in the air when shooting prevents an opponent from blocking your shot and always gets applaud from the crowd because it requires great strength.

We don't want applaud, but remembering to sometimes just hang with friends, family and co-workers - even when so many commitments are demanding your attention - reduces chronic stress and improves wellbeing. We cannot separate our relationships from ourselves; if we're not hanging with the people who're important to us, we'll eventually end up feeling isolated.

Hanging doesn't mean just having dinner with or catching up briefly to share personal news with a friend;  it means spending quality time, like going for a long walk, or going on holiday with a friend - something that will allow the heart to gradually open so you can communicate from it, rather than from the mind or the intellect.

4. Master the basics first

In the history of the NBA there's probably no player like Larry Bird who, while lacking the razzmatazz and athletic grandeur of Jordan or Bryant, had mastered the fundamentals of the game to such an extent he'd practice shooting with his eyes closed.

He wasn't quick footed, couldn't jump like Jordan, but did the basics - shooting, passing, defending, stealing, rebounding - well enough to become one of the top fifty players in the history of the NBA.

Everyone likes a bit of flashiness, a stylish, acrobatic maneuver that leaves the crowd agape and wondering: how the hell did he do that? But before trying to be flashy, it's important to first master the basics and to keep it simple so we don't try for something we can't pull off.

At the court I play at guys who're always trying to pull off the fancy And1 tricks and moves even though they have trouble making a lay-up when under pressure or in traffic.  Some of the little kids at the court spend their time trying to throw up three pointers even though they can barely score from deep in the key. First things first.

In life it's important to keep this lesson in mind and ask yourself; are you eating well and exercising, do you have regular sleeping patterns that follow the sun, are you drinking plenty of water, are you spending quality time with your friends and family, are you focused at work? If the answer's no or not really, your life game will be off and will continue to plummet until you refocus your energy on these fundamentals.

5. Take it to the rim strong

Charles Barkley was the NBA player most famous for his aggressive, locomotive drives to the hoop. When he drove, few players dared to stand in his way.

Basketball is not a sport for the meek, it's a physical game that demands an element of aggression and determination. If you don't like getting knocked around or messing with peoples' heads, then it's not for you. .

Being able to put your head down and fearlessly drive to the basket, no matter who's under it - unless a veritable wall like Shaquille O'Neil is waiting for you - is what makes basketball a fun game. Without that aggression and the willingness to sometimes fail or get blocked, basketball becomes a spectator sport.

Life's the same. Intensity and confidence are needed if we're to give something a good go and get results. We have to overcome fear of failure because that fear is the failure if it scuppers our efforts or deflates our drive in life. We have to accept that sometimes we will get 'blocked', obstructed or diverted, but no matter what happens we should keep living with determination and focused intensity.

6. Extra lesson: total court awareness

After writing the five lessons it occurred to me that I'd missed the most important skill the game of basketball demands: total court awareness. The best players never get stuck in a narrow focus of what they're doing or going to do, but always - even if they're looking in an opposite direction - know where each of their team mates is and where the gaps on the court are.

We should also try to keep the big picture in mind and avoid becoming self-centered and unaware of what's happening for the people around us, whether friends, family or even people in distant locations like Haiti or Afghanistan. A life of consumerism tends to disconnect us from our natural empathy and compassion for the world around us. It locks us into a narrow vision based on notions of I, me and mine rather than 'us'. By caring more about other people we automatically unburden ourselves of our own 'perceived' problems.

Kobe Bryant, the best player in the NBA today said: "Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise." If we keep this in mind and try to live with a touch of magic, life will be game we all enjoy as much as the African kids who play basketball together every afternoon at the courts down the road from my house.

"They like us again - US set to lift ban on military exercises with NZ"
 - NZ Herald front page headline for the lead story on Saturday 09 January 2010

I never bother buying the NZ Herald or visiting the online version because I know that, as part of the corporate media system, it never offers a radical analysis - radical, in Latin, meaning going to the root or real causes - but only offers spectator journalism, a journalism that is designed to maintain the status-quo for the rich and powerful, rather than bring about positive change for the well being for all in our society.

But on Saturday, as I waited at the express check-out, the front page of the Herald sitting on the shelf caught my attention and made me feel nothing but disgust. The gushy headline, "They like us again", sounds like something a group of twelve year old girls might say about the boys down the road. The boys stroll up after ignoring them for weeks, say "wanna kiss" and the girls blush, gush and batter before being led down the bank to that place where hearts are broken.

The headline was for story about the U.S. decision to lift a ban on military exercises with NZ, which is taken as a sign of improved diplomatic relations after an icy patch since the brave David Lange banned nuclear powered naval vessels from entering NZ waters.

"They like us again." Are we to feel good about being approved of by the world's leading military menace, the equivalent of the school yard bully, but on steroids, a virtual Goliath armed to the teeth? Are we so insecure and desperate for approval (and a free-trade agreement) that we fall over gushing when the leading killer of civilians around the world gives us a wink and promises to do a bit of shooting practice with us? Is that the state of NZ today?

Since the beginning of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, based on the lowest credible estimates, America has been responsible for the deaths 848,845 innocent civilians, and still counting. For every one insurgent a U.S. drone kills, 10 or so civilians die. As much as America prattles on about terrorism or human rights, the fact remains it's the leading cause of terror and human rights abuse world wide.

It is now intimidating Yemen, Iran, Pakistan and still, to this day, training and funding right wing paramilitary groups in South America that are responsible for thousands of deaths every year.

And while America lectures on nuclear disarmament and the urgent need to stop nuclear proliferation, its DOD is planning to build a stock of a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), packed with conventional explosives, but capable of striking any where on the globe within an hour of being launched. When building these so-called 'conventional' ICBMs, capable of traveling more than 15 times the speed of sound, - that, I'm sure, could always be rearmed with nuclear warheads - and being the leading nation that is, right now, busy killing or complicit in killing people all over the globe - usually in oil rich and strategic locations - how can it then expect nations like Iran not to be so concerned that it wont try to create an A-bomb to defend itself?

America is also still one of the leading nations for carrying out the death penalty and, despite an Executive order to close it, Guantanamo Bay prison camp is still open, with prisoners who, against the Geneva Conventions, are being held indefinitely without charge or trial and without access to counsel or family. The evidence the U.S. has against these detainees is often undisclosed and sometimes tenuous or extracted through cruel or degrading interrogation practices and sometimes through torture.

Yet, despite all of this easy to find information, New Zealand's most widely read daily newspaper runs a positive puff piece that sounds like it came straight from the foreign office with the gushy headline "they like us again".

Sure, America helped to stop Nazi Germany and the Japanese in WW2, but that was then and this is now. Just as people can change for better or worse, so can nations. In the U.S., as elsewhere, the fixed political and corporate elite interests (which often switch back an forth) - that underlie the facade of democracy and the hollow promises of change - are the real drivers of foreign policy.

Plentiful and cheap natural resources, a 'positive investment climate', cheap labour, indebtedness, arms buyers, geo-political dominance and, of course, oil oil oil - these are the unchanging interests of the U.S. establishment, regardless of party or president, not human rights, social care or equality.

As early as 1948, in the post war period, a secret document written by the head of the U.S. State Department Policy Planning Staff, stated that a key aim of the U.S. was to maintain "the position of disparity" in wealth between it and the rest of the world (Edwards, 1998, p. 29). It states:

"...We have 50% of the world's wealth, but only 6.3% of its population ... In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we afford the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction ... We should cease to talk about vague and - for the Far East - unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of living standards, and democratisation" (Edwards, 1998, p. 30).

Since then, America has propped up and armed dictators and right wing paramilitaries and death squads from the Middle East to Indonesia, from Colombia to Vietnam. Why? To maintain its disparity in wealth by securing its access to cheap natural resources.

How much longer does America's criminal record need to be before we call it out for what it is; a rogue state? How many more civilians have to die by its laser guided bombs before we, as a nation, realise we're trying to get into bed with the worlds most dangerous imperial power? When will we stand up for the weak and vulnerable living under the heel of the U.S. military, rather than gush when Mrs Clinton visits and promises to practice killing people with us or when American actor Susan Sarandon says she "loves New Zealand"?

For certain, it wont happen as long as the NZ Herald is our most widely read daily newspaper.

 

 Videos showing the 'liquidation' of human beings with Hellfire missiles fired from U.S. unmanned Predator and Reaper drones is the latest Youtube smash hit and a continuation of controversial imagery referred to as war porn.

I use the word liquidation and the military fetish terms Hellfire, Predator and Reaper intentionally because this type of locution, commonly used by U.S. officials and their fans, is as disturbing as what they describe.

These terms, a sort of video game parlance,  are chosen to engage an audience, to get it on side with a cool, but fearsome force while also distancing it from the reality by making it sound like something from the game War Hammer 40K.

Giving these deadly pilot-less aircraft hip names draws on the surrounding culture thus making them seem part of the overall cool of Hollywood and the gaming world. It suggests their operation is a game and that the lives they're ending are as meaningless as the persona's killed on the cinema or gaming screen.

But these aircraft, and their distancing names, are anything but cool. And the people they're killing aren't Space Orcs, but real, living, breathing human beings who love and are loved, who have hopes, feelings and a strong desire, as we all do, for self-determination.

Over 1 million people have watched these Youtube clips, which have been uploaded by the innocuous sounding Digital Video & Imagery Distribution System which claims to provide a "timely, accurate and reliable connection between the media around the world and the military serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain".

The videos reinforce a certain celebratory triumphalism toward the killing of America's and Britain's enemies that's prevalent in the media. Whenever the U.S or the U.K kill one or many of their enemies, the lame-stream media happily blow the trumpet for their respective militaries:  progress! we've killed a few more evil-doers!

Whether or not the deceased were insurgents, Taliban fighters or innocent civilians (which many have been) isn't the point I'm making; the point is that treating the violent death of any human being is not a cause for celebration and the only reason it has become so is because we have, in our perception, stripped them of their humanity, demonised them, made them a through-and-through evil monster that must be stamped out like a cockroach. This mentality is exactly the same as the mentality of terrorists who believe that the West is so immoral and debased that the only way to deal with it is to try and destroy it.

Rather than celebrate we should mourn because somewhere a mother, a sister, a son has lost someone they love. Even if they are a Taliban fighter, that fact doesn't change. These drone porn videos are posted for entertainment, a wow factor thrill when, in reality, they simply show the sick, unenlightened state of a still primitive human species.

Human rights groups are protesting the use of drones due to the large number of civilians being killed by them and, in part, because no warnings are given when one will strike in an area.

The Brookings Institution, a U.S. think tank, has published a report exposing just how unreliable the so-called 'targeted killings' of drones are. The report speculates that more than 600 civilians have been killed by drone 'targeted killings' which they suggest means  "that for every militant killed, 10 or so civilians also died". That doesn't sound very targeted to me, but more like a bloody moral outrage.

Naturally this outrage is stoking anti-American sentiment in Afghanistan and Pakistan and as counter-terrorism expert David Kilcullen explains: "When we intervene in people's countries to chase small cells of bad guys, we end up alienating the whole country and turning them against us."

Rather than being entertainment, these drone videos should be an impetus for anti-war protest in the West. America tries to claim that their occupation of Afghanistan is to champion the people's human rights, but when they're killing scores of civilians with Reaper drones it's obvious this isn't the case. Rather than treating life as tapu, it appears that life is cheap to the U.S establishment.

The question, then, is why should NZ be supporting this war? Are a bunch of Taliban fighters in the mountains of Afghanistan really a threat to us or to the U.S. for that matter? It seems that destabilising Pakistan is the only thing the occupation of Afghanistan has achieved. And given Pakistan has nuclear weapons and a long running hatred for India, that could turn what is being portrayed as video game into a very real nightmare situation.