There are some strange things in the air:
Cheney - I think you have to go back to the problems that Andrew Jackson had with Calhoun to find an example of a former vice-president who chooses to wage war against a new administration. Am I right about that? His behavior is in such bad taste that I am driven to wonder why he is acting this way. In accordance with "Lang's Rules of Analysis" (25 May, 2007 in SST) I suppose that the most likely answer is that he is simply afraid of his own fate. He was so central to everything that occurred in the first GW Bush administration that he stands to lose heavily as details are revealed of the "policies" that he and his henchmen and allies espoused. At the risk of sinking to the level of "reductio ad hitlerum," I must say that a lot of his stated rationale for torture as an instrument of statecraft is reminiscent of a famous speech that Himmler made to senior SS leaders at the Wewelsburg Castle. "We must sacrifice our higher sensitivities in the service of the state, etc." (paraphrasing) Ugh. Cheney also sounds as though someone is feeding him talking points. I doubt that he is smart enough to originate a lot of these memes and themes.
Iraq- The Bushies in exile are selling the line that we have made a new Iraq (a brave new Iraq), an Iraq that Obama may "lose" through hasty withdrawal. This is "preparation of the information battlefield" for an eventual "we wuz robbed" (nous sommes trahis) propaganda campaign.
Where is this new Iraq? Is it the Iraq in which we have reversed the social order by putting the Shia Arabs in charge so that they can demonstrate that there was nothing unique about the way the Sunnis used to treat them. Is it the Iraq that is now inevitably going to be in the "orbit" of Iran? Is it the Iraq in which the central government in Baghdad has even less authority in Kurdistan than before. Is it the Iraq that bristles with hostility to the US? Where is it? It is nowhere. We broke Iraq and now we are inevitably leaving it patched together with duct tape. Will it fall apart when we leave? Maybe.
Afghanistan - "She who must be obeyed" is a bigtime civic activist (Tribune of the People) here in our fair city. She is often invited to conferences, meetings, workshops, etc. at which the developer/citygovernment/chamberofcommerce complex stages farces that they call strategic reviews or citizen/government interactions on questions of land use. At these theatrical productions the "players" earnestly present the "issues" and "possible decisions" to the assembled "Tribunes of the people." There are Power Point shows. Lunch is served. The "players" (with Tribunes) break down into small groups where "hard questions" are asked and sincere "players" give the Tribunes heartfelt responses. In the end the herd instinct of humans prevails and the Tribunes "buy into" the players' plans.
The US military has become expert in the business of manipulating public opinion. They hire contractors to help them. The Army has created a basic officer personnel branch for career propaganda officers. Vietnam caused the Army to believe that management of public opinion was a basic task of warfare along with fire, maneuver and logistics. Now, we are all targets of "information operations," some mounted overseas by foreign government, some by our own government to include the US military. They mean well.
The vogue for "strategic reviews" is a manifestaton of this process. I have been invited to a few of these. In these farcical proceedings, "guru" types are invited, lunch is served, small group discussion takes place, and the talking heads and "gurus" become advocates for the desires of those who have successfully flattered and nodded them into agreement. The press is full of the oped pieces of McChrystal's "advisers," oped pieces that concentrate on settng the stage for eventul demands for more and more resources for Afghanistan. What is not asked, EVER, is the simple question of what the ultimate goal of the United States should be in Afghanistan. Why is that?
I feel sorry for the president. He is under constant attack by both internal and external propagandists and information warriors. pl
I heard it first from a Jordanian and spread it to the IDF DMI and the Egyptians. When I told it in Syria I said it was about the Mossad.
Long ago and Far Away ----
The Olympic Committee decided to hold a special series of games to know which was the world's best intelligence service.
A lot of countries sent teams, often from both their military and "civilian" services. Each team was composed of a captain and two sergeants. They all assembled on the island of Cyprus (no idea why). There were various events and they eventually came to the ultimate and most heavily weighted event which was to be a kind of treasure hunt. They all went up into the mountains in the western part of the island where there are a series of parallel ridges covered in pines and separated by deep terrain compartments. They assembled in front of a woodline. In front of the teams there were several UN referees in white coveralls with blue helmets and a stack of cages in each of which there was a white rabbit. The head UN boffin held up a rabbit and said that it would be released into the woods behind him and that after 15 minutes the first team chosen at random would go in after it. The team that came back with a live rabbit in the shortest time would win the event.
The rabbit went in. 15 minutes passed and the KGB team went in after it. They could be heard thrashing about and eventually emerged with the rabbit in 35 minutes. The next team was the French DGSE. They came back with the rabbit in 10 minutes. (The rabbit looked strangely content). Next was the turn of the Mossad. They were back in in 13 minutes loudly proclaiming that they were "the best." The CIA never found the rabbit. Finally it was the turn of the Syrian Mukhabarat (the secret police). A half hour passed, 45 minutes, then an hour. The UN people went in to find them. They went down one steep slope into the valley bottom, then up another rugged incline to the top of the ridge. From the height, they could see the three Syrians who were at the bottom standing in a sandy road. They had captured a large animal. The UN men crept down, hiding the while in the bushes until they were close enough to see and hear.
The Syrians had found a Nazarene donkey. (The kind with a cross marked in the fur of its back). One of the sergeants had a grip on the head while the other sergeant beat the beast's hindquarters with a stick.
The captain was whispering to it, "Confess, confess, we KNOW you are a rabbit..." ("I'tarif, I'tarif, na'ref annak arnab.") pl
Please re-post your versions of the story or any other intelligence joke. In the Middle East "intelligence services" are really secret police.