Lies II

Recession in Rural Areas, Jiho

Ah, well, it's no use prevaricating about the bush
--Wallace and Gromit,
The Wrong Trousers (1993)

Some lie in words and speeches
With every living breath
--Lies, Elton John

There is nothing more frightening
than active ignorance
-- Goethe

Truth is beautiful, without doubt;
but so are lies
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
_______________

The above graphic demonstrates what we've seen along the 81 corridor in Pennsylvania in Southern New York. A whole lot of dilapidated towns.

More lies from the national treasure chest (follow-on to "Doubting Thomas"):

• We won the Cold War, and its corollary, Communism is an implacable enemy.

Without doubt, the USSR disintegrated, so obviously we won one theatre of operation.

But if the Cold War was so important as be a multi-generational military project, shouldn't the same focus be aimed at the evil that is Chinese communism? Cuban communism is treated as a cancer, yet Chinese communists are awarded most-favored trading partner status.

Either communism is a threat, or it is not. Communists are either excellent trade partners, or communist nations are bad. This national inconsistency is an example of American schizophrenia. The same comments regarding China also apply to communist Vietnam.

If the communists in Vietnam were bad then, when and how did they morph into being "good" now? A bit of expeditious political legerdemain? If they are good, why did 58,000 men die fighting them?

• The U.S. is fighting a global war on radical Islamic terrorism.

In truth, the U.S. is aligned with radical Islam. Our relationship with Saudi Arabia is proof of this, as is our relationship with Pakistan, whose intelligence agencies are allied with al-Qaeda.

We are not fighting radical Islam on a world scale, but splinter groups which are radicalized. By claiming for a Global War on Terror versus radical Islam, we elevate the minimal threat of the splinter groups to an unrealistic and overblown level.

All al-Qaeda members in Iraq Afghanistan and Pakistan are local, Level I threats which can not project their hostility to the U.S. Homeland ™. The only threat al-Qaeda poses to the U.S. comes from the educated, technologically-proficient, English-speaking, clean-shaven, lap-dancing aficionados. These westernized elements and their Western sympathizers and converts are the threat.

Al-Qaeda Taliban riflemen in Waziristan are simply that. Such a person can be no more than he is. He can not go James Bond with his basic Taliban infantry training. His effectiveness is geographically bound by his regional area of operations.

• Some day Iraq and Afghanistan will be good friends and allies to the U.S.

You have got to be drinking the special Kool Aid if you buy this one.

Allies are a plus in international relations, but neither of these countries can add anything positive to American foreign policy. Ditto the Caucasus region of Georgia. These are not future gas stations for the U.S., but merely money sumps, hastening the end of our empire.

To be continued. . .