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Check out this disturbingly provocative story for an analysis of the Pentagon’s apparent long-term strategy.
It reminds me of a private presentation Colin Powell gave after the Gulf War of the early 90s, in which he said one of the Pentagon’s problems was that it no longer had a pervasive enemy as the U.S. had with the old Soviet Union in the Cold War. So it would be difficult to focus our defense development efforts. Well, now, apparently the Pentagon has crafted the future, with their Long War scenario.
Why don’t we hear more about this in the press? Why isn’t Congress debating it? Perhaps it’s because the Pentagon planners think public opinion is something to be manipulated, rather than sought out. This is the dark side of what was once a popular definition of public relations: the engineering of consent. However, in a democracy, even a representative democracy like our own, public opinion matters.
For the sake of this and future generations, look into this and start by going into the story at this website. Then, ask questions until you get answers. http://www.alternet.org/world/146236
Photographed off Dubrovnik, Croatia
Conclusion of a current, fact-filled, point/counterpoint article running in politicsdaily.com by David Corn, former Washington Editor of The Nation
“But I do presume that our elected leaders — and their aides — will hold a rigorous regard for the truth, particularly when the issue is war. The bottom line is undeniable: Bush and Cheney repeatedly issued false statements to guide the nation to war, and they made no concerted efforts to guarantee that they were providing the public with the most realistic depiction of the threat. They were not interested in an honest debate; they wanted war.”
I was once supporting the company president at an automobile dealer grand opening. The dealer had rented a circular life-size flying saucer, and retained Miss America, wearing her trade-mark bathing suit and sash, for the event. We brought a furry animal suit, which represented the company mascot, and was worn by my assistant that day. Waiting inside the stiffling hot saucer with the two of them, I had to restrain my “overheated” mascot from repeatedly hugging Miss America, before we lowered the stairs for them to step out for the ribbon cutting.
via Discussion: Public Relations Society of America (PRSA National) | LinkedIn.
Istanbul, Turkey
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Paul Wolfowitz
Vanity Fair interview
May 28, 2003
For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.
Lt. Gen. James Conway, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
Press Interview
May 30, 2003
It was a surprise to me then it remains a surprise to me now that we have not uncovered weapons, as you say, in some of the forward dispersal sites. Believe me, it’s not for lack of trying. We’ve been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they’re simply not there.
War is a primitive, repulsive business. Why would reasonable people have tried so hard to talk themselves into getting in it, instead of launching into it only as a very last resort? Perhaps, because they weren’t such “reasonable” people.
Dockside at Abbey Harbor, Geneva Lake, WI
Just passed one thousand visitors to my Apple Pressings blog since it went up in mid-Nov. Not sure if that’s doing well, but it’s a thousand more voluntary visits from curious, perceptive people than I had before the blog…
“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”
“A human being is part of a whole, called by us the’Universe,’a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest–a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
“If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”
“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”
Apple Pressings 