SHUT DOWN INVISIBLE IN HIDING

Photograph of Mongolia by Palani Mohan

He walked slap bang into a hyper-real world. Everything had been shut down. Every trace of psychic disturbance that could be tracked. Every reason for being. Every trawl rope catching trails of fortune. He did not say anything because there was nothing to say. He no longer wished to cooperate. He no longer wished to be a subject of interest. They had hidden in the undergrowth for millions of years; and the ability to hide, passed down through all those lives, through combinations of DNA and drifting souls, had been essential for survival. There wasn't going to be a future without a past; if that made sense; but he wasn't reaching back.

All the time, all the way, through that undergrowth, big Marmoset eyes high in the trees or buried behind green, peeping out, it wasn't just that, it was everything. The time for cooperation was over. It had simply created too many problems, attracted all the wrong attention. He wasn't a military operative; he had no intention of being captured. They could hide in the ordinary forever, and nobody would ever know.

He saw them on rare occasion. "You have on old soul," a man said to him in Bangkok; "you meet them sometimes." And for a while they had been curious friends, meeting up around Soi Seven or Soi Eleven. An old Bangkok hand; his friend eventually dived back into the swirl of drunkenness, incompetence, euphoria and despair that was a bust; and he would only ever hear, after that, disjointed stories of what had happened to him.

He didn't have his address, or he would have gone to visit him. Throw yourself under a bus; by far the best thing to do. Captured and captured, allured and alluring, disappointed and triumphant, experimental dross on a sea of words, a crowded world full of too many words, of the cleverest age in the history of mankind. And so it went, he said.

"See you," he had said, after they had dinner in a tiny restaurant on Soi 11, all new to him, familiar to his newly acquired friend.

Was he dead now?
Quite possibly.
Fallen from a balcony.
An accidental overdose.
A premature heart attack.

Oh cheer up you old bastard. Let go of all attachment; and it all comes back to you; these fleeting times.

THE BIGGER STORY:

President Barack Obama has authorised the first sustained deployment of special forces to Syria, the White House says, reversing a long-standing refusal to put US boots on the ground.
Obama allowed a deployment of 'fewer than 50' special operations personnel in the north of the war-ravaged nation, in a bid to strengthen forces fighting the Islamic State group, spokesman Josh Earnest said.
While US fighters are believed to have previously carried out covert missions in Syria, they had not been deployed there on a continuous basis.
For over a year, the US has led a 65-member coalition that has conducted air strikes against more than 13,000 Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria.
But that has had only a limited impact in stopping the jihadi advance.
Efforts in Syria have been plagued by the complexities of a civil war that has killed more than 240,000 people since March 2011 and prompted the most serious refugee crisis since World War II.
Obama has been reluctant to involve the United States in another ground war in the Middle East, backing opposition groups that are an uneasy mix of Kurds, Turkomen, Shiite and Sunni Arabs.
Many have proven keener to fight Syrian President Bashar al-Assad than the Islamic State.
Obama was recently forced to scrap a half billion dollar mission to train Syrian opposition fighters, who had come under sustained attack from Assad's forces, IS fighters, Iranian-backed Hezbollah, groups linked to Al-Qaeda, and, more recently, Russian air strikes.
- See more at: http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/10/31/us-to-send-special-forces-to-syria.html#sthash.RywgOBjv.dpuf

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/10/31/us-to-send-special-forces-to-syria.html

resident Barack Obama has authorised the first sustained deployment of special forces to Syria, the White House says, reversing a long-standing refusal to put US boots on the ground.
Obama allowed a deployment of 'fewer than 50' special operations personnel in the north of the war-ravaged nation, in a bid to strengthen forces fighting the Islamic State group, spokesman Josh Earnest said.
While US fighters are believed to have previously carried out covert missions in Syria, they had not been deployed there on a continuous basis.
For over a year, the US has led a 65-member coalition that has conducted air strikes against more than 13,000 Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria.
But that has had only a limited impact in stopping the jihadi advance.
Efforts in Syria have been plagued by the complexities of a civil war that has killed more than 240,000 people since March 2011 and prompted the most serious refugee crisis since World War II.
- See more at: http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/10/31/us-to-send-special-forces-to-syria.html#sthash.RywgOBjv.dpuf

President Barack Obama has authorised the first sustained deployment of special forces to Syria, the White House says, reversing a long-standing refusal to put US boots on the ground.

Obama allowed a deployment of 'fewer than 50' special operations personnel in the north of the war-ravaged nation, in a bid to strengthen forces fighting the Islamic State group, spokesman Josh Earnest said.

While US fighters are believed to have previously carried out covert missions in Syria, they had not been deployed there on a continuous basis.

For over a year, the US has led a 65-member coalition that has conducted air strikes against more than 13,000 Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria.

But that has had only a limited impact in stopping the jihadi advance.

Efforts in Syria have been plagued by the complexities of a civil war that has killed more than 240,000 people since March 2011 and prompted the most serious refugee crisis since World War II.

President Barack Obama has authorised the first sustained deployment of special forces to Syria, the White House says, reversing a long-standing refusal to put US boots on the ground.
Obama allowed a deployment of 'fewer than 50' special operations personnel in the north of the war-ravaged nation, in a bid to strengthen forces fighting the Islamic State group, spokesman Josh Earnest said.
While US fighters are believed to have previously carried out covert missions in Syria, they had not been deployed there on a continuous basis.
For over a year, the US has led a 65-member coalition that has conducted air strikes against more than 13,000 Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria.
But that has had only a limited impact in stopping the jihadi advance.
Efforts in Syria have been plagued by the complexities of a civil war that has killed more than 240,000 people since March 2011 and prompted the most serious refugee crisis since World War II.
Obama has been reluctant to involve the United States in another ground war in the Middle East, backing opposition groups that are an uneasy mix of Kurds, Turkomen, Shiite and Sunni Arabs.
Many have proven keener to fight Syrian President Bashar al-Assad than the Islamic State.
Obama was recently forced to scrap a half billion dollar mission to train Syrian opposition fighters, who had come under sustained attack from Assad's forces, IS fighters, Iranian-backed Hezbollah, groups linked to Al-Qaeda, and, more recently, Russian air strikes.
'The point is to get some guys on the ground, get eyes on, work with units that are there fighting (Islamic State) and see what more is possible,' said one official.
The source also said that weapons would not go to the Kurdish People's Protection Units, known as the YPG, who have recently been accused of war crimes by Amnesty International.
The White House denied the move was a reversal of Obama's pledge not to put combat troops in Syria, saying Americans would not be 'leading the charge up the hill.'
'Our strategy in Syria hasn't changed,' said Earnest, rejecting accusations of 'mission creep.'
- See more at: http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/10/31/us-to-send-special-forces-to-syria.html#sthash.RywgOBjv.dpuf

President Barack Obama has authorised the first sustained deployment of special forces to Syria, the White House says, reversing a long-standing refusal to put US boots on the ground.
Obama allowed a deployment of 'fewer than 50' special operations personnel in the north of the war-ravaged nation, in a bid to strengthen forces fighting the Islamic State group, spokesman Josh Earnest said.
While US fighters are believed to have previously carried out covert missions in Syria, they had not been deployed there on a continuous basis.
For over a year, the US has led a 65-member coalition that has conducted air strikes against more than 13,000 Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria.
But that has had only a limited impact in stopping the jihadi advance.
Efforts in Syria have been plagued by the complexities of a civil war that has killed more than 240,000 people since March 2011 and prompted the most serious refugee crisis since World War II.
Obama has been reluctant to involve the United States in another ground war in the Middle East, backing opposition groups that are an uneasy mix of Kurds, Turkomen, Shiite and Sunni Arabs.
Many have proven keener to fight Syrian President Bashar al-Assad than the Islamic State.
Obama was recently forced to scrap a half billion dollar mission to train Syrian opposition fighters, who had come under sustained attack from Assad's forces, IS fighters, Iranian-backed Hezbollah, groups linked to Al-Qaeda, and, more recently, Russian air strikes.
'The point is to get some guys on the ground, get eyes on, work with units that are there fighting (Islamic State) and see what more is possible,' said one official.
The source also said that weapons would not go to the Kurdish People's Protection Units, known as the YPG, who have recently been accused of war crimes by Amnesty International.
The White House denied the move was a reversal of Obama's pledge not to put combat troops in Syria, saying Americans would not be 'leading the charge up the hill.'
'Our strategy in Syria hasn't changed,' said Earnest, rejecting accusations of 'mission creep.'
- See more at: http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/10/31/us-to-send-special-forces-to-syria.html#sthash.RywgOBjv.dpuf

President Barack Obama has authorised the first sustained deployment of special forces to Syria, the White House says, reversing a long-standing refusal to put US boots on the ground.
Obama allowed a deployment of 'fewer than 50' special operations personnel in the north of the war-ravaged nation, in a bid to strengthen forces fighting the Islamic State group, spokesman Josh Earnest said.
While US fighters are believed to have previously carried out covert missions in Syria, they had not been deployed there on a continuous basis.
For over a year, the US has led a 65-member coalition that has conducted air strikes against more than 13,000 Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria.
But that has had only a limited impact in stopping the jihadi advance.
Efforts in Syria have been plagued by the complexities of a civil war that has killed more than 240,000 people since March 2011 and prompted the most serious refugee crisis since World War II.
Obama has been reluctant to involve the United States in another ground war in the Middle East, backing opposition groups that are an uneasy mix of Kurds, Turkomen, Shiite and Sunni Arabs.
Many have proven keener to fight Syrian President Bashar al-Assad than the Islamic State.
Obama was recently forced to scrap a half billion dollar mission to train Syrian opposition fighters, who had come under sustained attack from Assad's forces, IS fighters, Iranian-backed Hezbollah, groups linked to Al-Qaeda, and, more recently, Russian air strikes.
'The point is to get some guys on the ground, get eyes on, work with units that are there fighting (Islamic State) and see what more is possible,' said one official.
The source also said that weapons would not go to the Kurdish People's Protection Units, known as the YPG, who have recently been accused of war crimes by Amnesty International.
The White House denied the move was a reversal of Obama's pledge not to put combat troops in Syria, saying Americans would not be 'leading the charge up the hill.'
'Our strategy in Syria hasn't changed,' said Earnest, rejecting accusations of 'mission creep.'
- See more at: http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2015/10/31/us-to-send-special-forces-to-syria.html#sthash.RywgOBjv.dpuf