Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

US Military Spokesperson Compares Iraq to “Great Work of Art”

Meanwhile, the chief US military spokesperson in Iraq has compared the ongoing violence there to a work of art. Speaking in Baghdad Thursday, General William Caldwell said: "Every great work of art goes through messy phases while it is in transition. A lump of clay can become a sculpture. Blobs of paint become paintings which inspire."

from democracynow.org
Headlines for November 3, 2006


astounding. military spokesperson's theory of (political) aesthetics.

Yeah I like how the use a lot of "red" in their paintings!!!!
_________________
og kush strain

As in all things, there is even an art to war. The oldest military treatise in the world The Art of War, written by Sun-Tsu. The beginning of the book states: "Warfare is the greatest affair of the state, the basis of life and death, the Tao to survival or extinction. It must be thoroughly pondered and analyzed."

Unfortunately, this administration's attitude towards it's war is more like that of an unschooled doper high on spray trashing out box cars, insulting even the graffiti artists. They wouldn't know or understand any art if it were explained on a first grade level. To have a President and his administration in charge of any war is extreme stupidity given the fact not one of them have ever worn a uniform for the protection of their country (don't try to convince others of 'Gee Wizz's' so-called military service - another insult to the military mind).

well said

Camus said suicide was the only philosophical question. Considering the advancements in military weapons in the twentieth century I think a thoughtful military mind would think along those lines.

After Thucydides sort of:
In the twenty first century, war is suicide.

you know i'm gonna ask:

what did the Thuc' man say?

After Thucydides sort of:

Damn you won't let me slide on nothin

By sort of I meant taking some liberties with the text, I can't claim poetic liscense cause I am not poet.


Working on a comeback for you , But it has been forty years since I read The History of the Peloponnesian War.
I may have to reread it to give you a better answer.

What he said or what I remember was that the war was suicide for the Athenian Democracy.

The funeral oration of Pericles' Reminds me of JFK's Inaugural Address for some reason

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this ...

A new generation of baby boomers. Like G W Bush.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.

Well we lost the war on poverty but we sure got human life on the brink.



We have come a long way since the bronze age and the weapons there of.

I do not think it is completely unreasonable to perceive a certain savage beauty in warfare--even modern warfare. Hegel said some similar things, as have writers and poets throughout the ages: and isn't there a certain sublimity in the defeat of an obvious tyrant--like the Brits defeat of the Luftwaffe in Battle of Britain? I wager Nietzsche would say yes. Pacifism is not inherently good. That said, I would claim that most Americans in FoxNews land are shielded from the real nightmares and gore of battle. Pasting up pix of the dead--military and civilians--across newpapers, TeeVee, and websites might be a reasonable requirement (even during 'Nam the nightly news featured a lot of footage of mangled bodies and so forth--but in the Brave New World of corp. media much of the impact of warfare--like the initial attack on Basra--has been tamed down for the consuming audience.)

war is hell. -- sherman

GWF Hegel disagreed. And be assured Herr Hegel would not be down with the modern "left."

GWF Hegel disagreed.

how's that?

I don't recall the exact quotes from the Phil. of History, but GWF Hegel asserted that war was a type of spiritual battle--a time when the World Spirit sort of duked it out in the form of various nation-states, or something to the effect; and the great military leader-- a Caesar, or even Bonaparte--a type of intellectual hero, and capable of doing Good (realizing the Idea, perhaps) in some sense (tho' militarists capable of great evil as well). I don't necessarily agree with that, but I do think there have been just wars--e.g. the allies vs. nazis and japanese. Nietzsche as well had a somewhat pro-militarist aspect, did he not.

Recall the exact quotes!

The World Spirit will not tolerate lackadaisical haphazard paraphrase. the True is the Whole and nothing but the Whole. Amen.

Google Hegel, War and, like, Marxists suck shiiiete, and maybe you'll find something interesting.

i think you spelled that wrong.

Marx was right about most things, except, like, the whole revolution bit.

US Military Spokesperson Compares Iraq to “Great Work of Art”

What about the Art of Warfare

http://www.chinapage.com/sunzi-e.html

maybe I had a head ache before but it sure hurts now
Iraq a work of art
Do you think he has been reading
http://www.chinapage.com/sunzi-e.html




I will google it and see if the article is still around.

A Iraq a work of art
it is painful for me to try and get a grip on that