A bit of a slow news day, or rather a day slow on news that prompts me to comment. I read this article earlier today and was on the edge of blogging on it, but the activation energy was just not quite enough. However, upon reading his second update that last bit of energy was supplied…
Gen. McCaffrey privately briefs NBC execs on war with Iran
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/28/gen_mccaffrey_privately_briefs_nbc_execs_on_war_with_iran/singleton/
It seems the military has so thoroughly learned its lessons about manipulating the media (it seems to me I wrote on this before, but wasn’t able to find the post, but they learned it during the first Gulf war) that it can’t help itself even when it is no longer in the military. Of course it could all be about naked greed and secrete payola, but that implies conspiracy, planning, forethought and coordination, something I am not yet convinced is actually possible for these sorts of people (maybe they really are so much smarter than I am that they can act like morons as a smoke screen?). Anyway, were I a god believer instead of the pagan heretic I am, I might say “Thank God for the Internet” and its ability to provide some news that isn’t in direct control by the 1%. Not content with three unfunded wars (everyone is so quick to forget Libya), now the drum beats for a fourth (well, more than that if we count Yemen, Somalia, etc., etc.) get hot and heavy and one of the purported news agencies is offended that they are being accused of bias because they only get information from one side of the debate. Of course, they are all pretty much ‘reporting’ (government stenographers is their real role) the same thing and offering the same biased viewpoint, so I guess we should all happily prepare for a whole new war just because, well, that is what _they_ tell us to do!
As a by the by, anyone notice that North Korea has decided to ditch its nuclear weapon program in exchange for food? I suspect that the thought that leaving the sanctions to work on Iran for a few more years is totally out of the worldview of all the drum beaters. Sanctions are boring. I am reminded of a scene in Issac Asimov’s Foundation series where one of the little empires the Foundation had been trading with got upset and started a war only to have the Foundation simply refuse to engage in war-like activity. Remarkably, in a fairly short period the populace got very upset about all the sacrifices demanded of them and overthrew the government (at least that is how I remember it, I haven’t read the stories in years). If Israel and the US would simply stop all the talk of war the Iranian government would be left without an external enemy (of course, they could try to get people fired up about the sanctions, but that argument likely will ring hollow) and would have to respond to internal dissent and might finally be inclined to moderate their stance.
Anyone else as frustratingly amused as I am that Iran’s ‘dictator’ is democratically elected? Since the sheeple seem to eat whatever they are fed I guess I should stop complaining about them. My problem is that by admitting that to myself I now become one of ‘them’ who tailor arguments specifically for the sheeple to lead them around. Even if I did it for the greatest good of the greatest number, I am still treating them like shit. Why can’t they pull their heads out of their asses and learn to think? Why, oh why, is the sky not pink?
