“Biocracy is as old as the Apple of Knowledge, shared in the Garden of Eden- and as new as a genetically engineered mouse, patented by Harvard University.”
David N. Leff`(Editor-in-Chief Biotechnology Newswatch)
In a series of lectures on the subject of eugenics (ironically) organized by UNESCO’s Science and Ethics Commission, researcher Gwen Terrenoire elaborates on the practice and philosophy of eugenics in France before 1945. In the course of the lecture, Terrenoire touches on the desire of many eugenicists to create a scientific dictatorship needed to orderly carry out eugenics. She mentions top-eugenicist Alexis Carrel:
Charles Darwin wrote that human beings, unlike livestock, had never been forcibly bred for select characteristics, ‘except in the well-known case of the Prussian grenadiers.’
“Carrel expresses more clearly than other eugenicists the dream of a State governed by eugenics, what Muchielli calls a biocratic utopia, where public policy is inspired by the scientific elite, with medicine prevailing over all other disciplines. He believed that his scientific approach would enable social and moral problems to be solved, and with this aim he recommended not only measures relating to hygiene and the protection of childhood but also the elimination, occasionally directly by euthanasia, more often indirectly by the sterilization of thousands of individuals judged to be dangerous for the future of the human race and an obstacle to the success of socalled biologically superior people.”
This statement reveals the ambitions of the biocrats, namely to create a “superior” class of men. By on the one hand selectively breeding new men, destined to be the slaves of the future, and on the other exterminating the “inferior”, deemed as obstacles on the road to achieving their goal. The first to wield this double-edged sword were, as one would expect, the aristocrats. Royalty is the name, eugenics their game.
Aristocratic Beginnings
The concept of breeding human beings for nefarious purposes is far from a novelty. Men have toyed with the idea for many-a-century. Monarchs throughout history have studied the hide and texture of the creature called eugenics, poking its skin with a pitchfork and finally piercing it, revealing black pus streaming off its scales. The questionable art of breeding human livestock was cultivated to its very extreme by different royal houses of (mostly) German descent festering over the European continent. Fanatically marrying inside each others families, they drew from a disturbingly limited gene pool- with all the nasty side effects that go along with it (a peculiar maliciousness in their behaviour- in combination with some repulsive physiological features in their outward appearance). Products of centuries of interbreeding themselves, it became the royals’ specialty to crossbreed their poor animals until they were degraded to utterly hideous, cross-eyed perversions of their original selves.
Because the bluebloods considered their subjects as little more than animals, the inevitable next step was that they should expand their experimentations to their human quarry. Already a preferred hobby of European royalty, the elite refined its original fiddling to a new level of efficiency. Eugenics was no longer some decadent deficiency on the part of the elite. It became a matter of policy, to be used at the pleasure of the state in oppression of the individual. However, the inclination of royalty to actually attempt breeding a subservient class of men was a relative novelty by the time Frederick William I from the house of Hohenzollern became king of Prussia in 1713.
The strange case of the Prussian Grenadiers
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
Charles Darwin wrote that human beings, unlike livestock, had never been forcibly bred for select characteristics, ‘except in the well-known case of the Prussian grenadiers.’ To the amazement of fellow-rulers and trembling subjects alike, the Soldier-King (as Frederick was nicknamed) began to collect giant men as one would collect rare stamps. From all over Prussia he had his agents look for- and oftentimes kidnap- men suffering from gigantism. In striving to create his own personal soldier core of giants, the king instructed his subjects to immediately signal the authorities whenever they should become aware of exceptionally tall men in the vicinity. He also made clear to his political allies that they could keep their gifts of gold for themselves as long as they provided him now and then with fresh giants to fill up his stock. The strange and sinister request dripped down into every segment of Prussian society. Prussian teachers, eager to appease the morbid king, kept an eye out for tall children and promptly handed them over to him when they had the chance. Newborn babies, expected to grow unusually tall, were marked with a bright red scarf for identification purposes.
If someone was unfortunate enough to be over six feet tall and born in the Prussian sphere of influence (which was quite extensive at the time), he would sooner or later be noticed and assigned to the king’s private collection cabinet. Cautious parents, aware of the king’s eccentric cravings, made improvised shelters for their children to hide them from the ever watchful eyes of Frederick’s scouts- who feverishly roamed the land in search of specimens to satisfy his dark avocations. If the collection item-to-be happened to be well-to-do (or of noble descent himself) no expense was spared to acquire him- for the king reserved enormous amounts of cash just for the purchasing of giants. If one had the misfortune of being of modest means or descent, the conduct of the Prussian agents was altogether different: in this case they were given carte blanch to simply abduct the person in question, bring them before the Prussian king to be inspected, stamped with the royal seal and subsequently enslaved. It would sometimes occur that his agents were so eager in carrying out their assignment that their prey would not survive the brutal journey to the Prussian throne. This would always enrage the impatient king, and the agent in question could count on a swift reprimand for his negligence (usually on the unhappy end of a rifle). Some glitches aside, his collection grew steadily- and before long he managed to assemble his giants in a formidable ‘regiment’ which were regularly taken out on display when some befriended tyrant came to visit. But Frederick was not satisfied with merely collecting the giants to impress neighboring monarchs; Frederick took the whole thing to the next level.
Crossbreeding Giants
According to Washington Monthly author David Wallace-Wells, ‘King Frederick’s obsession was more than mere schoolyard eugenics.’ Indeed it was. Frederick was not the man for silly pet projects or idle pleasures. He was a Prussian king and that means thoroughness in absolutely every respect. With an ambition that would put Marie Stopes to shame, he gathered from all over Europe the most impressive ‘samples’ and selected each and every one of them personally before sending them to his sub-level experimentation chambers. The most notorious of these experiments was the stretching of his grenadiers on a specially constructed rack in an attempt to make them taller than they already were. Frederick would sometimes preside over these racking sessions himself while enjoying his lunch at the same time. However absurd and cruel this method, it revealed the king’s unwavering ambitions regarding all things inhumane. One of the first to venture into the world of methodical eugenics, king Frederick encountered the same difficulties as his future counterparts. When it became apparent that this method resulted in the death of the giants instead of gaining even an inch in length, he ended the practice lest he run out of giants. But putting a halt to this racking practice could not prevent the giants from dying in alarming numbers, for many of them sought refuge in suicide. As only a German blueblood could devise, the king forced his rapidly shrinking collection to interbreed with equally tall women so as to build a future army of giants, which would be the envy of Europe’s upper-class. Here he actually attempted to breed a ‘new man’, and it is said that the city of Potsdam, lair of the Hohenzollerns, was littered with unusually tall men at the end of the 18th century as a result. It is sad, this tale of the Potsdam giants. They fell victim to the elite’s bloodthirsty appetite and unwittingly became one of the first to be sacrificed on the altar of eugenics.
The Green Guise
To consolidate their place in 20th century society, modern eugenicists can be traced back to an ancient genealogy, dating all the way back to the days of Plato. Once established as a ‘legitimate’ branch of applied science, eugenics took its gloves off, revealing its true face. Forced sterilizations and brute experiments were everyday-events in the years leading up to the Second World War. These operations were enforced by all major powers, and spearheaded by the British and the Germans. After the Nazis were supplanted by the rising fronts in the East and the West, both invading allies put all of their own eugenic sins on the back of the thoroughly slain bad guy (of course a lot of SS-demons were captured only to be pampered somewhere in South-America or the U.S.). 1945 meant the end of old Germany, not necessarily of the Nazis, who were given their own private playing ground in super secret facilities on the other side of the Atlantic.
After the war a great mask of deception was strapped on the gruesome face of eugenics. Openly denouncing her more crude manifestations, the new boss (same as the old boss) grinned a second and then cried an infamous cry that over time turned into a worn-down mantra: ‘we must save the earth from ourselves’ and ‘man is the enemy’. This call reverberates straight into our own time, where generously funded ‘scientific’ organizations miss no opportunity to usher in an age of environmentalism: a brilliantly deceptive phrase covering a wide range of crimes: from one-child policies to subsidized abortions and so called family planning. However ‘green’ the guise may be, we have only to study history in order to uncover her true countenance.
When the Tactical Air Control Party deployed to Afghanistan with 3 PARA Battle Group on Operation HERRICK 4 none of us expected the brutal realities of combat that we were to face. Each of the men from the RAF Regiment Tactical Air Control Party found themselves in contact on a number of occasions and experienced high intensity war fighting over a sustained period of several months. We fought in close quarters with the Taliban, exchanging small arms fire day and night, in the lush green rural environment along the Helmand River, in the harsh desert that covers the majority of the region, and in urban environments fighting from building to building in the numerous towns that are dotted around the North of Helmand. We called in Close Air Support from fast air and attack helicopter, managed the Airspace and integrating indirect fires whilst jumping over walls and diving in ditches fighting alongside fellow Paratroopers and Royal Horse Artillery Gunners.
The first members of the 16 Air Assault Brigade Tactical Air Control Party arrived in Kandahar Airfield (KAF) on 11 April 06 and had the challenge of setting up the 3 Para Battlegroup Joint Fires Cell and Air Cell within it. This included setting up all the air links and writing the Battlespace Management Plan for the Battlegroup, an unenviable task even at the best of times. Flight Lieutenant Matt Carter and Sergeant Si Scholes managed to get all the Forward Air Controllers’ needs catered for and after completing the in-theatre accreditation briefs (mandatory to control aircraft in theatre) concentrated on networking with the Canadians, (Brigade Headquarters) and anyone else who could assist us with the Helmand Battlegroup’s inception. Kandahar Airfield was an interim home to allow Bastion to be built to a habitable level. During the stay, liaison was made to establish the airspace management links, meet Ground Liaison Officers from the myriad of Close Air Support airframes (UK Harriers, French Mirage 2000, Dutch F16, US A10) and befriend the all important Air Liaison Officer at Canadian Headquarters. On arrival to Camp Bastion, they found out just how austere their new home and operating base really was. There were just a few tents surrounded by a sand berm and razor wire. Even the Tactical Landing Zone was outside the wire! For the first three months it was bottled water showers and washing clothes in the sink. Bastion was in its embryonic stage and grew daily; on leaving for the UK in Oct the Tactical Landing Zone was inside the wire. Life at Bastion during our time was not too bad after the laundry facility was set up and the 10 man tents were fitted with air conditioning. The week we left there was even one permanent building (the NAFFI shop)! Bastion offered respite for those passing through between operating at the outstations, but too long at Bastion proved sole destroying, especially for those slaving away in 55C in the tented Joint Operations Centre without air conditioning! The outstations were a different story…..
Soon after the initial deployment and with only A Company, 3 PARA, in theatre we began patrolling in the town of Gereshk. On the second patrol we encountered our first contact. Flight Lieutenant Matt Carter was at the heart of the action and called in a GR7 Harrier for a low show of force to warn off the enemy. Commanding Officer 3 PARA was present on the patrol and quickly realised the importance of Air Power in such a large and hostile place.
Once the core elements of the Battlegroup had deployed we quickly found ourselves holding the District Centres in a number of small towns in the North of Helmand; Sangin, Musa Qaleh, Now Zad, Kajaki and Gereshk. Each location had a Fire Support Team to call in fire support including a Forward Air Controller to control Close Air Support and Attack Helicopter. The Taliban went on the offensive to test our resolve leading to months of heavy fighting. We responded robustly to each attack and took the fight to the enemy. Flight Lieutenant Chris Jordan spent 3 weeks on the roof of the District Centre in Sangin calling in air strikes from an AC130 Gunship, Harrier GR7s and Wart Hog A10s literally defending themselves from waves of attacks by the Taliban. The same pattern of life continued for the next 4 months, with contacts occurring almost hourly at one stage, it was a matter of when, not if the contact would happen. Sergeant Si Scholes and Sergeant Nick Garner did their time on the roof at Sangin, calling in Close Air Support and dropping large quantities of ordnance to defend themselves and their colleagues. The Signallers were also in the thick of the fighting with SAC Abe Williams being mortared daily in Musa Qaleh, SAC Warren ‘Sausage’ Lucas exchanging rounds day and night in Now Zad, SAC ‘Goode’ Good avoiding the legacy mines and fighting with the Gun Group, and SAC Paul ‘Rusty’ Whitehouse controlling emergency CAS in Kajaki. The contacts would come in the form of small arms, RPG, 107mm rockets and mortar attacks or typically all 4 with the improvised explosive devices and mine threat always a real and present danger. Life in the outstations was incredibly mentally and physically demanding; dealing with contacts day and night with very little sleep for weeks at a time takes its toll, especially when friends and colleagues are being killed and wounded around you.
A number of deliberate Battlegroup Operations were planned and executed. During Operation MUTAY Flight Lieutenant Carter and SAC Whitehouse were providing Close Air Support to Patrols Platoon and controlling the Airspace for an operation in the town of Now Zad. SAC Lucas was the Forward Air Controller’s signaller for a Gurka Platoon. The operation rapidly descended into numerous contacts. SAC Lucas found himself in the centre of an ambush and risked his life to recover a vehicle so that his commander could regain control of the situation. Meanwhile Flight Lieutenant Carter and SAC Whitehouse were fighting the Taliban in close country for 6 hours and called in Apache Attack Helicopter cannon fire to within 30m from their own friendly position. The first time UK Apache was used in contact with the Enemy.
On another deliberate operation Flight Lieutenant Carter and SAC Lucas deployed as part of the Battlegroup Tactical Group to control the Airspace and provide Close Air Support. The insertion at night was, unwittingly, onto a hot helicopter landing site and the 3 CH47 Chinooks that were inserting the first wave of troops took rounds through the cabin wounding troops inside. Once on the ground, after a heavy landing, chaos ensued due to the intensity of the fighting in the pitch black of night and a section of Afghan National Army troops adding to the confusion. Having spent too long on the ground, and before everyone could deplane, the Chinook took off. “We saw the 2 in front of us fall off the tailgate and we were left with the decision of do we stay or jump? We looked at each other and jumped hoping it was not too high” Flight Lieutenant Matt Carter. Once on the ground SAC Lucas covered Flight Lieutenant Carter while he established communications with the AC130 Spectre Gunship overhead and called in 105mm and 40mm fire onto the numerous Taliban positions that surrounded us.
“The Afghan experience was shared with 3 PARA soldiers and troops from supporting units (engineers, medics, signallers, etc) but in particular was made very special by commanding the tight knit team of 9 men that made up the RAF Regiment Tactical Air Control Party. Manpower was limited due to the number of tasks the Battlegroup were committed to. This affected our ability to conduct operations into the town centres; however, hearts and minds campaigns were our initial and enduring intent throughout the tour. Unfortunately the Taliban would not let us improve the lives of the local people and we found ourselves responding to Taliban offensives robustly in an attempt to create security at each of the towns we occupied. Certainly during the months of July, August and September all civilians had left the towns of Sangin, Now Zad and Musa Qaleh. Limited and very dangerous urban foot patrols and talks with the local elders made us certain that the only people left in the towns were Taliban. Towards the end of our tour our hope of providing security was becoming a reality. A ceasefire was brokered in Musa Qaleh and the fighting began to die down. We handed over to 3 Commando Brigade feeling that we had achieved our aim of forging UK forces way in Helmand and creating the foundations for continued operations.” Flight Lieutenant Matt Carter.
All Tactical Air Control Party personnel are now safely home, and are preparing to deploy on Op HERRICK 8 in April 2008!
A pair of rockets fired by Nato forces at Taliban rebels veered off course and killed 12 civilians on Sunday.
The incident underscored the risk that an offensive designed to bolster support for Afghanistan’s western-backed government could instead fuel public anger.
The rockets were aimed at insurgents shooting at international and Afghan troops taking part in a big operation launched on Saturday to secure the town of Marjah and surrounding areas. However, the weapons landed 300m wide their mark, according to the Nato-led force in Afghanistan.
General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander who has made protecting civilians the centrepiece of his strategy since taking command of the force last year, apologised.
”We deeply regret this tragic loss of life,” Gen McChrystal said in a statement. ”The current operation in central Helmand is aimed at restoring security and stability to this vital area of Afghanistan. It’s regrettable that in the course of our joint efforts, innocent lives were lost.”
The International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said it had suspended use of the vehicle-borne rocket system involved in the attack, which happened in the Nad-e-Ali district outside Marjah. A combined force of 15,000 US, British and Afghan troops launched one of the Nato-led force’s biggest operations since 2001 in the area on Saturday.
The rocket system is commonly used by US troops, although Isaf did not give the nationality of the soldiers responsible.
The deaths will raise fresh questions over whether Gen McChrystal’s offensive can succeed in fostering a greater sense of security by driving out the Taliban, or might backfire by increasing resentment of foreign troops and their allies in the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai.
As of Sunday night, confirmed civilian deaths outnumbered the toll of Nato troops in the offensive, which military officials put at two: one US marine and one UK soldier. Provincial officials in Helmand said more than 27 insurgents had been killed since the offensive began before dawn on Saturday when US marines swooped into Marjah in helicopters.
Gen McChrystal believes that protecting the population is the key to turning the tide of the war against the Taliban, and he tightened the rules governing air strikes, which are responsible for many of the deaths caused by foreign troops, after taking up his command of the Nato-led force last year. The United Nations says Taliban bombings account for the bulk of civilian deaths in the conflict.
However, reports that operations by foreign troops have caused civilian casualties have sparked a series of protests in various Afghan towns in the past few months. The Taliban has used such reports to paint international forces as brutal occupiers.
After initially encountering only sporadic resistance, journalists travelling with military units in Marjah said on Sunday that the Taliban appeared to be intensifying their fight in several locations in the town, although the fighting was sporadic.
Reuters news agency reported that insurgents opened fire on a ceremony to raise the Afghan flag at a position held by US marines on Sunday, designed to mark progress by US and Afghan forces pushing into Marjah. A CNN reporter embedded with marines also reported incoming fire.
“Now the fighting is going on, we can hear loud bangs and there is smoke and dust in the air,” Abdul Jallil Khan, 42, a farmer who lives in Marjah, told the Financial Times by telephone. “The fighting is very hot. It seems to me that the Taliban are resisting.”
US military officials said on Sunday that the joint force had entered most of the town. Mullah Abdul Razaq Akhond, a Taliban commander in the town, told the FT that his fighters had inflicted heavy casualties on foreign forces.
The offensive is the biggest operation launched by the Nato-led force in Afghanistan since Barack Obama, the US president, ordered 30,000 extra forces to the country in December.
The Nato-led force says it plans to stay long enough to help the Afghan government rapidly build up local administration as part of a broader plan to garner support for the government of Mr Karzai, ahead of a planned pullout by US forces due to begin in mid-2011.
