Unfortunately, the cold-hearted American mastermind(s) behind Kennedy's assassination may never be identified, because the code of "plausible deniability and "need to know may succeed in preventing us from ever learning the identity or identities of the master manipulator(s).
By contrast with the rightly celebrated warrior's code, the CIA's code of "plausible deniability and "need to know is manipulative and antiheroic. The cold-hearted manipulators manipulate underlings. The goal of the cold-hearted manipulators is power.
In my estimate, the CIA's code of "plausible deniability and "need to know represents the polar opposite of the warrior's code that Hector admirably articulates in the Homeric epic the "Iliad. In what is arguably the most moving episode in the "Iliad, Hector tells his wife Andromache that he would die of shame if he did not lead in battle. Hector cares about his wife and his young son as well as his father and mother and the people of Troy. As a result, Hector goes forth into battle to fight to defend the people he deeply cares for from immediate threat. As a good warrior, he was willing to die in battle defending what he most cherished in life. And die he did.
Like Hector, President Kennedy faced the prospect of his own death in the spirit of a good warrior. He was willing to die for what he most cherished. And die he did " taken out by American conspirators because he turned away from the Cold War and toward peace. In Douglass' estimate, this is why he died.
But why does it matter why he died? In Douglass's estimate, it matters because the national security state and its war machine are still with us today in the United States. It matters because we Americans have not followed President Kennedy's example and turned away from war in support of peace.
The death of President Kennedy brought Lyndon Baines Johnson to the presidency. In accord with the dictates of the American war machine, LBJ escalated the war in Vietnam, thereby giving President Kennedy's military advisers a war. Since the death of President Kennedy, America has been a nightmare world to live in as the American war machine that conspired to kill President Kennedy has ruled unchecked -- with truly bipartisan support.
In recent years, the nightmare world of the American war machine that killed President Kennedy has involved the United States in unnecessary and expensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan " both wars enjoying broad bipartisan support from members of Congress. In a truly bipartisan way, members of Congress are willing to put billions and billions of dollars into supporting the American war machine and the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Of course the politicians are putting all the financial support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on the tab " the expenditures are rolled into the national debt, so as to keep the American war machine rolling along in Iraq and Afghanistan. But who is going to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan " and how and when?
So what kind of man are you, President Obama " another LBJ giving the American war machine its way, or another JFK resisting the American war machine?
As long as you continue to act like another LBJ, you will not have to fear being assassinated, as Presidents Kennedy was. If you are not ready to die, perhaps the shrewdest thing for you to do is to continue to act like another LBJ. You are indeed a shrewd politician.
But you are not likely to "succeed in your war in Afghanistan " not by 2012, and not by 2016 " not in any serious sense of the word "succeed. Your war in Afghanistan is a hopeless cause, just as LBJ's war in Vietnam was " unless you want to follow Truman's example and drop atomic bombs on Afghanistan! But even LBJ stopped short of following Truman's example in that way.
There is no good reason why American lives should be lost in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The so-called "war on terror should not take over as the new Cold War.
The acts of Islamist terrorists against the United States are not acts of war because by definition only countries can perpetrate acts of war. But the Islamist terrorists are not acting officially for another country. Therefore, attacks carried out by Islamist terrorists are not acts of war but crimes.
Islamist terrorists are criminals. To be sure, they should be dealt with as criminals are dealt with in different countries around the world by the criminal justice systems in each respective country. Consequently, Islamist terrorists should be dealt with by the criminal justice systems in the countries they attack and in the countries where they reside.
Nevertheless, should the Islamist terrorists in a given country somehow manage to win the support of enough people in the country, then a civil war will probably have to be fought within the country to determine how the country will be governed in the future. To the chagrin of some American politicians, the Islamists might prevail in a civil war.
As you know, our American ancestors first fought a bloody Revolutionary War and then fought a bloody Civil War to determine how this country would be governed. When we consider the total loss of human life in the American Civil War in terms of the total population of the country at that time, the total loss of human life in that war was a greater percentage of the population at the time than the loss of American lives in any other war. To be sure, civil wars are terrible.
Nevertheless, the people in Afghanistan may have to fight a bloody civil war to determine how their country is going to be governed, just as the people in Iraq may have to. Preferably in each case without American support or CIA involvement.
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