Flechette Wounds

Effective Target Servicing 100-1

I am aware that the recent TV series Underbelly, which depicted a brief and partial history of some of the worst of Australian organised crime, held a certain fascination for more than one devotee. Whether instigated by a "return to one's roots" or merely a delving into the darker side of life, evil, when viewed from the safety and comfort of one's armchair represents a figuritive "Darth Vader" calling us to "Come over to the dark side."

Just witness the rows of bookshelves inhabited by books on such topics as witchcraft and sorcery, warfare, crime, conspiracy theory and more, even if merely Harry Potter, Top Gun, Murder She Wrote, etc. These topics attract the minds of just about every John Citizen and his family. Top, blockbuster movies and bestsellers are almost always, if not always, about conflict and (hopefully) its resolution (usually involving violence, often extreme violence).

Shocking murders like those committed by the Charles Manson "family", mass "suicides" such as the Jonestown massacre, terrorist bombings, and the like exhibit a honey-pot siren call to the average person encased in the cotton wool of their fully insured, western "middle class", mediocre, non-eventful lifestyle.

Unimaginable Horror

Which brings me to the flechette.

A flechette is a pointed steel projectile, with a vaned tail for stable flight. The name comes from French fléchette, "little arrow" or "dart". These are used in warfare as secondary projectiles within a fired military shell. A delay fuse ignites a charge, exploding the nose of the already fired shell, subsequently propelling forward numerous (up to 8000) flechettes in a cone shaped trajectory. One can well imagine that these flechette projectiles inflict considerable, terrible and painful injury to living targets as the thin shaft is designed to bend into a hook like shape upon impact and often the flute blades snap off on impact to form a secondary projectile causing further injury.

Flechettes vary in size and form from 250mm in length up to a very large version of the flechette, utilised as the business end of armour piercing, anti-tank weaponry. Grooved flechettes have been known to be utilised for the purpose of carrying a payload of a VX nerve agent or other chemical weaponry. VX nerve agent is considered to be a weapon of mass destruction.

A less effective, smaller flechette weapon, for use at close range, has been devised to be fired from a small guage shotgun; these were designed to be carried by air marshalls in the fight against aircraft hijacking. I am unaware whether these have ever been used in the field.

Whilst it is not difficult to imagine even worse weapons of war than the flechette, which incidently have been discontinued in favour of a more effective, sheet metal version that disperses over a wider range causing greater casualties than the mere flechette, the flechette remains typical of the developed sophistication of modern weapons of combat.

Victims of Weaponry

Whilst I could have spoken about various modern weapons, the reason I opt to write about the flechette is that it recently came to my attention that flechettes, deployed via Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) launchers, were used against CIVILIAN populations, this century, in Darfur.

So what has this got to do with devotees who are the only persons ever likely to read this blog, assuming anyone besides the author ever reads it? Bear with me please.

Official estimates of the numbers killed in recent conflicts in Darfur vary from 250,000 to 450,000 persons, many of them raped and burned alive in a flagrant disregard for human rights. Although two leaders of the government orchestrated assault on civilian populations in Darfur, have been officially charged to stand trial at the Hague for crimes of genocide, it is not clear to me that genocide was the actual INTENT of their crimes, despite the genocidal outcome.

Upon closer inspection, it appears that aparthied was their original intention, in as much as one ethnic group utilised monetary, social and political power to wrest control of natural resources from another ethnic group, considered to be inferior persons by their oppressors. It's a relatively small step to escalate from one to the other since hate by one group of the other is omnipresent in acts of genocide, as is envy.

The crime of apartheid is defined by the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as inhumane acts of a character similar to other crimes against humanity "committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime."

Material Mentality

Since we are in the material world, that is, we are NOT in the spiritual world, it behooves us to consider that we have been put here for a good reason. Karma does not make mistakes. Attitudes such as considering one group to be less than equal, are at the heart of such evil violence as causing untold pain to other beings via such horrible weapons as flechettes, which were commonly used in the Vietnam war and elsewhere.

We, as budding devotees, whose goal is to avoid the miseries of the material world, would be wise to consider how easily we could be reabsorbed into the world of conlfict and combat if we already readily exhibit those lower world "qualities". Please consider that maya has already infiltrated the "stronghold" of your heart if you are not ready to adopt the exact opposite of superiority, and willingly accept an attitude of service and humility to your brothers and sisters, regardless of who they may be.

Flechettes, VX nerve agent, rocket launchers, and worse, may be a reality in your life sooner than you think. Krsna will definitely protect the humble, but those who see themselves as more deserving than any other person, regardless of their actions, may well have to defend themselves.

Bear in mind that neither the Congolese, the Chinese, the Jews, the Cambodians, the Albanians and Kosavars of Kosovo, the Rwandans, nor the Darfurians (Sudanese) thought that it would happen to them.

Violent Night Holy Night

Violence escalates as the kali yuga deepens day by day. Caitanya Mahaprabhu has created a golden age within the kali yuga. During this very lifetime you get to choose where you prefer to be. Choose wisely.

What's your target?

Joy to all beings