Tell the People What They Want to Hear

 You don't have to drag me down
I descend 
--Trouble, Shawn Colvin 

I'm Winston Wolfe. I solve problems
 --Pulp Fiction (1994) 

The trouble with this country is that there are 
too many people going about saying, 
"The trouble with this country is ..." 
--Sinclair Lewis
___________________

Egypt and Syria are convenient sops to sidetrack the discussion from America and Americans. In Egypt, Hosni Mubarek is back like the Ghost of Christmas past. Remember the passion you saw on the You Tubes at his deposition? Yeah, that guy, and those people. You are watching a Mobius Strip in real time.

You are told that social networking platforms which consume your lives are enabling the flash mobs of liberty to go forth, except it is just not so. Wildly entertaining, until you realize it is another crazy cat video in another guise -- and where did your precious hours go?

The truth is, the events in Syria or Egypt do not affect our national health and welfare, though they are a convenient distraction. How repulsive to realize that your country is enabling the military takeover of an elected government in one country (Egypt) and attempting to overthrow another by means of rebel proxies in another (Syria). In the meantime, we have fought two wars to impose democracy upon Afghanistan and Iraq -- nations in which we opposed rebellion and Civil War. It's all good of course, if you don't mind being Janus-faced.

Pity to see former Winter Soldier of conscience John Kerry suck up so badly in Ms. Clinton's shoes, but that is what power does according to Mr. Machiavelli. Secretary Kerry is naught but another guise of the disgraced Colin Powell, in another uniform. Is anyone vetting the source of the attacks? What is the sense for the Assad regime to use gas at this time? Will this be John Kerry's "roving vans of WMDs" moment? We can see Powell and Kerry bemoaning their fate as stooges on the same rung of Purgatory now. Two stooges ... who will be the third?

Mr. Kerry made his emotional appeal to do something based on the content of videos uploaded to YouTube by rebel supporters in the early hours of 21st August -- You Tubes! Well, this is what it has come to for the once-mighty Department of State, as former Foreign Service Officer Peter Van Buren often highlights at his site (Gangnam-style being the most faddish though already demode.)

All of the Islamic countries are one step away from chaos at any given time. The effects of World War I continue to haunt the region, and WWI did not resolve the prior entrenched volatility. The British, French and other European powers stepped off when colonizing the natives of Africa, Middle and SW Asia became a too-costly proposition, so why is the U.S. stepping into the chaos? We are self-appointed "Fixers", but we do not operate with the elan of Harvey Keitel's character Winston Wolfe in the film Pulp Fiction, but rather the buffoonish duo of Jules and Vincent. And what do we stand to gain?

If this is so momentous a moment, why does Congress not reconvene to debate the wisdom of intervention and vote on it? Who is considering the worst-case scenarios: What are the potential reprisals from launching U.S. cruise missiles, and what if our roulette wheel chooses to support the wrong brand of rebels? And what if they lose?

Since there is no overt logic to our current amebic actions in these Islamic entities that are difficult to call "states", there must be a meta-rationale which has not been made public by either the President or the Congress.

Inquiring minds want to know.