GOLPE DE ESTADO!

Raven is peering at photos of torture in Iraq in the Internet: Iraqi prisoners being tortured and sexually abused by US soldiers.

"This is what your species does when they have helpless victims in their grasp."

Those photos show what's behind the mask of the supposed bringing of democracy to Iraq, that's for sure.

"What also disturbs me is that whoever took the shots is highly suspect, and clearly part of the torture brigade."

That's true, Rave. A very different kind of photographer than the one who took that famous Vietnam image of the little naked girl who had been showered with napalm running down the road screaming.

"'Weren't we just talking about the Heart of Darkness, the Horror?"

These Iraqui shots are so cynical I don't believe there's any heart there--dark or otherwise. It's more like the Anus of Darkness.

"Considering the assholes who cooked up the Iraq Invasion Caper, I'll buy that interpretation. I find it interesting, though, that the head that rolled for this had tits and ass atttached to it: a woman general."

I was surprised at first, too--but then there have been a fair number of lady sadists: sickies with Dominatrix Complexes, Big Nurse in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"....

"Birds have taken it in the beak there. In fact, except for mad dogs--rabid dogs, really--I don't know of any crazy animals."

There's a dicho in Spanish that applies here: "Muerto el perro, se acaba la rabia."

"When the dog is dead, the rabies is over?"

Something like that. Dick Cheney, by the way, has always looked like a mad dog to me.

"Are you suggesting putting him out of our misery? And I mean OUR in the most global sense possible, embracing all species."

I'm not calling for a firing squad, exactly, but given the level of incomformity on the part of the US military high command with the Iraq Caper, the exposure of rampant human rights violations on the part of the forces of occupation--on top of the violations in Guantanamo--and the presidential options being The Cousins, Tweedledee and Tweedledumb, I'd say it's a good time for a golpe de estado.

"A military coup? Hmmm. That would be a pointed irony, since the Bush Gang backed the failed coup against Hugo Chavez in 2002, and then celebrated 200 years of Haitian independence by putting a coup against Aristide just this year."

It'd de interesting to see if Chavez would recognize a military government in the US.

"Well, he's been on both sides of the coup coin. Could be a tough call."

I'm no fascist, and my honorable discharge from the US Army for my 11 days as a conscientously objecting sergeant in Fort McClellan, Alabama, notwithstanding....

"Alabama! Sounds like Deliverance country."

That it is, Rave, but as I was saying: I would support a military coup against the current regime--which was imposed by a non-military coup anyway--because I don't believe that the military high command could possibly be as stupid, inept and unethical as The Cousins--and some of them may have even learned something from the Vietnam experience.

"With all the protesting statements being made by ex-chiefs of staff, etcetera, I think you may be onto something."

Not to mention that the presidential candidate I felt was the best of the litter would be the logical choice to head the military junta.

"Ah. Wesley Clark."

Bingo. The manure is piling up higher every day, Rave. Time to get ol' Wesley cleaning the Augean Stables.

"He's got my vote--er, molotov cocktail?"

I have just one word for you, boy: plastics. As in C-4.

"Speaking of military coups and C-4s, the star of Kaddafi is shining in the sky again: the Alpha Centauri of Arab Modernism. Since when are tribes modern?"

We tribal types have always been hip, Rave. Some folks are just slow to get the picture. Remember all the flak that Chavez caught a few years back when he visited Kaddafi and jump-started OPEC?

"And now Tony Lapdog Blair beats a path to his tent in Tripoli and everything's cool."

And Bush cancels the sanctions against Libya--and the C-4s are forgotten.

"Do you really think that Bush even remebers the Lockerbie Incident?"

Of course not. You don't remember something you never knew. But I bet Chavez is laughing in his papaya juice. Speaking of which, a tall glass of papaya juice would go down pretty good right about now.

"It would go down better than these horrifying torture pics. Saddam had nothing on these guys and gals. By the way, didn't he take power in a military coup?"

He did indeed.

"I have a hunch he would go down a lot better than the Marines with the Iraqis right about now."

Raven rolls his beady eyes and heads for the refrigerator.

Always the joker. Or is he?