Richard Fernandez:
Jonathan Ray of the National Interest [1] examines the question of how China builds weapons that it declares are immoral. “Why does China develop weapons systems that it opposes? China criticizes U.S. ballistic missile defense (BMD) systems, but conducted three BMD tests of its own from 2010 to 2014. China regularly supports a treaty to ban space weapons, but has repeatedly tested an anti-satellite (ASAT) system.”
Why? Because the Chinese have realized that given a choice between what is real and what is depicted on paper, Western leaders always believe the paper. Incredulously, unbelieving at first but with growing confidence they realized they can treat Western leaders with the same contempt that European traders once showed to primitive tribesmen in the Amazon or Congo rain forests.
The canny Fidel Castro, Putin or ISIS, like the Chinese understand that the Western elites have degenerated into a kind of superstition-ridden clique, as much in bondage to political correctness as those inhabitants of the Congo or Amazon were to their inchoate ideas which the European explorers ruthlessly exploited. Except now the situation is reversed. Today it is the inhabitants of great Western capitals who can be held at bay by nothing more than a few televised dramatics or a hashtag on Twitter, by a little sleight of hand.
For example, the Taliban have convinced the White House they are no longer terrorists, not by changing their deeds, but by simply intoning words [2].
“They do carry out tactics that are akin to terrorism. They do pursue terror attacks in an effort to try to advance their agenda,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest explained today, but “they have a different classification.”
Was there ever such a magic? Words are incredibly powerful in the West. Local shamans called lawyers can use sacred objects called precedents to achieve all manner of astounding things. With this supernatural fetish in hand [3], even ISIS may soon make demands on Western powers.
A debate is now ensuing on whether the United States started a precedent of cutting deals with terrorist organizations when they traded the “Taliban Five” for Bowe Bergdahl last summer.
“We traded five senior ranking Taliban commanders for Bergdahl, and now we’ve kind of set this precedent,” former Navy SEAL Dan O’Shea said. “The U.S. has a hard time to tell other countries to stick by our no concessions policy when we violated a policy in place for many, many years. So I see this as a challenging development and another slippery slide on the dangerous slope of making acquiescence to the demands of terrorist groups. You can expect more of this to follow.”
Pashtun tribesmen or Pakistani bureaucrats learned a piece of paper marked “Agreement” or “Memorandum of Understanding” can make European and American warriors as docile as sheep. Mark how the US has left Afghanistan [4], at times under fire, without a peep.
Leaving Afghanistan has become one of the most difficult operations the U.S. military has ever undertaken. “Certainly in our lifetime, it’s one of the biggest, if not the biggest operation in terms of complexity, size, and cost,” said Lt. Gen. Raymond Mason, who headed Army logistics until he retired last year. A Pentagon official called it a “nightmare,” and the colonel in charge of packing up Afghanistan last year called it “a logistics Super Bowl.” …
A round slammed into one of the sappers’ trucks. As the drones and choppers scrambled to find the shooter, the guys on the ground went into combat mode. The soldiers inside the truck that had been hit did a quick head count. One guy had shrapnel cuts on his neck and arm. Gunners on the surrounding vehicles searched the mountainsides for more incoming, but none came. As he had done before, the shooter fired just a single round and then melted back into the landscape.
The Taliban aren’t terrorists any more. Pakistan is a friendly allied power. A piece of paper says so. Even the snipers of America must cower before the written word. Sheldon Richman of the Future of Freedom Foundation [5] wrote: “Excuse me, but I have trouble seeing an essential difference between what Kyle did in Iraq and what Adam Lanza did at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It certainly was not heroism.”
Maybe it’s not heroism. Maybe it was … some other word. We live in a cloud of illusion. Like fake engine noise, a reference to the simulated sounds now being built into performance trucks to give the impression of V-8 power. The Washington Post [6] explains that engine growls are now broadcast over speakers.
“Enhanced” engine songs have become the signature of eerily quiet electrics such as the Toyota Prius. But the fakery is increasingly finding its way into beefy trucks and muscle cars, long revered for their iconic growl.
For the 2015 Mustang EcoBoost, Ford sound engineers and developers worked on an “Active Noise Control” system that amplifies the engine’s purr through the car speakers. Afterward, the automaker surveyed members of Mustang fan clubs on which processed “sound concepts” they most enjoyed.
Politicians understand that illusion rules. Readers may recall the Iranian backed Houthi rebels who recently toppled the US supported government in Yemen. Was it a defeat for Obama’s counterinsurgency model? No it was victory! Victory! TheWall Street Journal says [7] “In Strategic Shift, U.S. Draws Closer to Yemeni Rebels”.
Political psy ops. The West (our liberal idiots) have been using them for years a non-military approach to mass propaganda.
It seems it’s getting “harder” for our political correct liberal elite (political base) to explain away their own lies.
They must feel frustrated….and hire a lot of “talent” able to “restructure” those lies, and platitudes into something that just “may” be plausible….to the World.
It’s beginning to unravel because our political elite believe their own lies…or know how dangerous to their political careers (party) it is if their lies are put in the light of day…what choice do they have…Tell the truth? Nah.
…exhausting to lie and keep them ALL straight isn’t it?? Not to mention ‘expensive’.
One can buy an exhaust enhancement system on the internet.
Richman is no different from Moore.
The fool lies repeatedly and the jackass put him back in office a second time.
Spend a week in a sniper’s boots, the closest thing to hell on earth.
sociopath lie on a regular basis, look at the slut clinton or her pedophile sexual predator bier. Funny he never had sex with that woman but his DNA matched the semen spot on her dress