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Charlottesville driver an agent provocateur?

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Message John Peebles

Charlottesville car attacker Fields may have been an agent provocateur.

Divide and rule is a strategy that can help some political causes more than others. Some dark forces may be attempting to seed a race war between Americans.

We do know crisis actors have been reappearing in these events, and that they're actually hired to participate. So the possibility of a staged or directed event is quite high. Plus, Fields may have been a Hillary supporter, and the organizer of "Unite the Right," Jason Kessler, had been part of Occupy as recently as November 2016. Swings of loyalty are a real red flag; if Fields were so devoted a white nationalist, where's the history?

The notion of an agent provocateur dates back to ancient times where one side will insert a covert agent who provokes a mob into doing acts of violence which then precipitate a violent reaction by the other party. America's seen its share of this tool, dating back to strikes and other demonstrations in our not-too-distant past.

I'm cautious to use the word terrorist. One person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. We need to maintain the American system of justice where no one is guilty until found so by a court of law.

Such an exercise was missing after 9/11 and as a result we may have gone after the wrong guys. At a minimum we launched a preventable war based on a terrorist link where in fact none existed. Why is it that not a single person has ever been indicted or prosecuted? bin Laden never was; his wanted poster makes no mention of 9/11.

As for the violence "on many sides" comment. Maybe Trump knew something to indicate the possibility that Fields was an agent provocateur. If this is the case, the broad brushed-stroked so-called "white nationalists" or whoever they are didn't do it. Also, it takes two parties to make a fight. Violence was used on both sides before the Fields incident. And we don't yet know the motivations of driver Fields, whose car had likely been struck--perhaps these vandals were the real agents provocateur.

Do we even know who they are? Like 9/11, those blamed may not be acting under explicit orders from anyone higher up. There is a criminal justice system in place that requires evidence be collected for a reason. The reason is that without proof, accusations of criminality don't matter. Now if we could see who said what and identify a suspect whose acts directly led to an act of terrorism then we could go ahead. With 9/11 this didn't happen. Instead we had rendition and torture, something that gets the victim to say anything the torturer wants, most specifically that "he" did "it"--he being anyone and it being anything the torturer wants to blame.

General Lee is a symbol. And not just of slavery but of Dixie. Love of their country is no sin. And it was their country then. Many I'm sure didn't want to go to war then, and probably weren't slave-owners. Did Lee's personal views about slavery matter more than his obligation to the land he loved? Let's not confuse the love of one's country, honor, and duty with love of one's race.

Of course the South maintained the evil institution of slavery. I wonder how many people now being labelled white nationalists think that slavery is a wrong. They are after all Americans, too. I'd be cautious in labelling all those who want their Confederate statues racists. Of course some are bigots, most probably, but this doesn't make Lee any less respectable for his achievements as a general and leader. These people revel in their racial identity and its past--surely there's something worthy of honor in their history and former way of life?

Lee's statue in Charlottesville has a pending court case against its removal. If the legal process is allowed to move forward, then the statue will most likely be removed without risk.

Care should be exhibited in removing statues, especially if the idea seems politically popular to those in local government. Defilement and extralegal actions will incite and agitate to a far greater extent than quiet removal with Court backing. That assumes of course no one is trying to gain an advantage out of these protests--Charlottesville has emerged as the loser in this atmosphere of violence and hatred where no one wins but perhaps one party can be made to look worse.

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The author lives in Colorado, photographing the natural beauty of the Rocky Mountains. Politically, John's an X generation independent with a blend of traditional American and progressive values. He is fiscally conservative and believes in (more...)
 

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