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False or exaggerated threat assertions are necessary to build up legitimacy
among citizens before wars are started. Experts call it "fearology": Instill fear in
peoples' minds and they accept, from left to right, their own governments'
taxpayer-funded wars.
- Iran's military expenditure is roughly the size of Norway's. It has not invaded any country since 1738 but has repeatedly been invaded. Its population is 10 times larger than Israel's and its military costs half as much. Contrary to Israel, it has no nukes, it's party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and accepts inspections. Facts like these would be part of professional threat analysis.
Unfortunately, the fact-based analysis plays a much smaller role in today's security debate than it did, say, 20-30 years ago. In its place we have witnessed, since the 1990s, a rampant growth in government-funded PR companies and think tanks as well as ministry spin doctors/spokespersons who churn out deceptive messages to the public.
Thank you Mr. Oberg for your most interesting views but, unfortunately, we have no time to explore them in our media, much less even report on them, what with the sensational Cleveland Kidnap story dominating the news and very few outlets willing, even now after the documented debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, to challenge the rot in the official thinking that seems to have seeped seamlessly from Bush to Obama.
That may be because what looks like thinking isn't: it's a veiled rationale for increasing military spending which at a time of Austerity and effective Tea Party vetoes over Congressional spending on domestic spending that might create jobs or growth.
Instead,
driven by the "fearology" you speak of, we can only use the Pentagon to prime
the profit pump into that ever dependable military-industrial complex.
Note how enthusiastically, the new Defense Secretary Mr. Hagel who was presented to us as a fierce independent and skeptic, has not only towed the line on Israel but is working to undo any and all cuts mandated by the Sequester or even common sense. He has a new drone armada in the air and no doubt will get some new ideas when he sees "Iron Man 3."
What with new planes to order and high-tech cyber-wars to fight, the military must be fed--and fed well.
So what if we exaggerate a few threats here or there, from Boston to Benghazi where we of course worked with and subsidized the very Jihadis who later attacked our office there. It was never an Embassy but the weapons procurement and distribution business despite all the yammer about "security."
Consider the "rot" at
the heart of all the breathless exposes and media thumping about how Hillary
did not adequately defend what had earlier been our covert op.
Reports AP:
WASHINGTON (AP) --
Politicians love few things better than a scandal to trip up their opponents,
and Republicans hope last year's fatal attack on U.S. diplomats in Libya will
do exactly that to Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Democrats.
Still, Republicans and conservative talk hosts are hammering away at Clinton's and the Obama administration's handling of the 8-month-old tragedy. A daylong House Oversight Committee hearing Wednesday starred three State Department officials invited by Republicans. Security was poorly handled in Benghazi, Libya, they said, and administration officials later tried to obscure what happened.
But
the three men offered little that has not been aired in previous congressional
hearings. Afterward, Republicans all but acknowledged they're still seeking a
knockout punch."
Knock, Knock!
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