The first
time I thought about war with guns and soldiers
that weren't made out of plastic was in the spring of '63
when they were already preparing the killing fields of Vietnam [1]
and Dallas. The Whiz Kids and Smarty Pants McGeorge
were playing dominoes with our lives because [2]
they thought we had to stand with South Vietnam.
How could they be so stupid? was my confused
and unanswered question until one night a quarter
of a century later when the stars lined up and I saw it
on TV. I was the stupid one. They were lying. [3]
JFK was in
the way because war is a racket
and we are penny ante in a game worth billions. [4]
But why the
public execution and a fairy tale
that half the population never fell for anyway [5]
when a pill in his coffee or a well-planned accident [6]
would have raised no questions and we wouldn't be wondering
to this day how the "Best and the Brightest" on our side [7]
like Chomsky and Hedges could be as stupid as the stupid [8]
half of the population who believe in magic
bullets and disappearing brains or who like me
for a long time, just didn't think about it.
Vince got it from the get-go: a transparent conspiracy [9]
meant for the body politic to understand
little by little as we boil, like the proverbial frog. [10]
They've got us by the balls. Not even presidents
are safe. Resistance is futile so don't even try.
9/11 was
also meant to break our stupid
bubble but it didn't. Most prefer to believe
another even more "outrageous" fairy tale [11]
of Mohammed Atta and the 19 Arabs performing
miracles like Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves [12]
defying NORAD, the laws of physics and common sense.
It still took me four years and David Griffin
but Chomsky never got it, and Tulsi Gabbard [13]
believed so strongly in it she went to war.
Now after
another quarter of a century
after JFK and Vietnam, 9/11 and the Terror Wars [14]
after Julian Assange to show us that journalism is dead
after provoking a proxy war in Ukraine [15]
and destroying the country to save it, American style [16]
after aiding and abetting Israeli genocide [17]
after the Germans decided to destroy themselves
through debt and deindustrialization after
letting the US blow up their pipelines to make sure
that Germany and Russia would not be friends and prosper [18]
that Germany instead would buy US fracking gas
after the Germans have decided to become "war-ready"[19]
again after killing 27 million Russians
in the last war, turning their backs on the most powerful country
in Europe that could snuff them in a matter of minutes
if need be but have never been anything but friendly to them
after prostrating themselves before one senile POTUS
and being left in the lurch by his unpredictable successor
unable to admit how unbelievably stupid they have been
and change their course of self-destruction, destruction
of Ukraine, destruction of Palestine, which will also destroy
Israel, when they could be the new leader of the Western world
join BRICS and set an example for multipolar
peace and prosperity, one can reasonably ask
How in the world can they be so stupid?
When the Deep State becomes the State there is no conspiracy [20]
The frog is cooked and everybody knows it.
If you don't stand with Ukraine you're a Putin-puppet.
If you don't stand with Israel you're an anti-Semite.
If you don't stand with Taiwan (looking forward)
you're a Commie. Thoughtcrimes are handled by experts
for example at the office to combat conspiracy-thinking.[21]
Keep up with the news on TV, not on the internet.
Don't read anything by anyone with any sense. [22]
Don't ask who lied about expanding NATO.
Don't ask who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines.
Don't ask who terrorized the ethnic Russians in Donbas.
Don't ask whose taxes support the Nazis in Ukraine.
Don't ask who pays for bombing children in Palestine.
Don't ask anything, just keep your trap shut. Then you'll know
how they, and you and I, can be so stupid.
[1] See "Why I Didn't Go to Vietnam."
[2] See "Whiz Kids (Department of Defense), "McGeorge Bundy," and "Domino theory," Wikipedia, all retr. Apr. 5, 2025.
[3] See "The Men Who Killed Kennedy," Wikipedia, retr. Apr. 5, 2025 and my 1989 review.
[4] See "War Is a Racket," Wikipedia; "Most Expensive Wars in US History," 24/7wallst.com; "Funding," UkraineOversight.gov; "US moves to expedite delivery of $4 billion in military aid to Israel," TimesOfIsrael.com, March 2, 2025. For proxy wars as good "investments" see Giulia Carbonaro, "How Sending Aid to Ukraine is Saving the U.S. Billions of Dollars," Newsweek.com, Nov. 22, 2022; Vitaliy Syzov, "Four Reasons Why Supporting Ukraine Is a Good Investment," WilsonCenter.org, Jan. 11, 2023; James Bickerton, "Lindsey Graham Appears to Say Russians Dying 'Best Money We've Ever Spent,'" Newsweek.com, May 28, 2023. All retr. Apr. 6, 2025.
[5] Megan Brenan, "Decades Later, Most Americans Doubt Lone Gunman Killed JFK," gallop.com, Nov. 13, 2023, retr. March 23, 2025.
[6] See Jasmin Cilas, "7 Untraceable Drugs and Poisons That Cause Death in Humans," InsiderMonkey.com, Aug. 3, 2017, retr. Apr. 5, 2025.
[7] See "The Best and the Brightest," Wikipedia, retr. Apr. 6, 2025.
[8] Chomsky's disbelief in "conspiracy theories" re the JFK assassination and 9/11 are well known; e.g, here and here. See also my "How the New York Times and Academia Kept the Biggest Secret of the Pentagon Papers," Apr. 15, 2024. For Chris Hedges and John Kiriakou see "We don't need the CIA," The Chris Hedges Repor t," The Real News Network, August 12, 2022, from 32:30, retr. March 23, 2025.
[9] See Vincent J. Salandria, "The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: A Model of Explanation," Computers and Automation, Volume 20, No. 12, December 1971, pp. 32-40.
[10] See "Boiling frog," Wikipedia, retr. Apr. 5, 2025.
[11] George W. Bush, First Address to the UN General Assembly, AmericanRhetoric.com, Nov. 10, 2001, retr. April 6, 2025.
[12] The feats of Ali Baba actually pale in comparison to the supposed feats of the 19 Arabs on 9/11 (see "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," Wikipedia, and The 9/11 Commission Report, GovInfo.gov, July 22, 2004) or that of Lee Harvey Oswald on Nov. 22, 1963 (see the Warren Commission Report, Archives.gov, Sept. 24, 1964). All retr. Apr.10, 2025.
[13] See David Ray Griffin, The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11, 2004 and many other books, articles, videos and podcasts. For Chomsky, see Note 8. For Gabbard see "Tulsi Gabbard: 9/11 inspired me to enlist in the military," Fox News, Sept. 12, 2019. On the belief in miracles see David Ray Griffin, "Left-Leaning Despisers of the 9/11 Truth Movement: Do You Really Believe in Miracles?" 911Truth.org, July 6, 2010. All retr. Apr. 6, 2025.
[14] See "War on terror," Wikipedia, retr. Apr. 6, 2025.
[15] See Scott Horton's comprehensive history of the conflict summed up in the title: Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine, 2004.
[16] See "Battle of Ben Tre," Wikipedia, ret. Apr. 10, 2025.
[17] "Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza," Amnesty.org, Dec. 5, 2024; "Israel's Crime of Extermination, Acts of Genocide in Gaza," Human Rights Watch, hrw.org, Dec. 19, 2024; "UN report on Israel's gender-based violence and genocidal acts against women's health facilities must spur action to protect Palestinians," Amnesty.org, March 13, 2025. On US and German support to Israel see Antoinette Radford, "Who supplies Israel with weapons?" CNN.org, Oct. 16, 2024. All retr. April 10, 2025.
[18] Cf. George Friedman, Speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, uaposition.com, April 5, 2015: "For the United States, the primordial fear is Russian capital, Russian technology, I mean German technology and German capital, Russian natural resources and Russian manpower as the only combination that has for centuries scared the hell out of the United States."
[19] See Sarah Rainsford, "Germany decides to leave history in the past and prepare for war," BBC.com, Apr. 30, 2025; "Germany must be ready for war by 2029, defense minister warns," FreedomReportage.com, June 8, 2024; "Germany gears up for potential war, plans for mass mobilization," essanews.com, June 7, 2024; "NATO must prepare as Russian threat builds, says German General," essanews.com, July 2, 2024; "World War III could be 18 months away if NATO fails to counter Russian threat, warns ex-US commander," essanews.com, Jan. 16, 2024. All retr. Apr. 10, 2025
[20] See "Deep State" and "Deep state conspiracy theory in the United States," Wikipedia, retr. March 23, 2025, bearing in mind that Wikipedia is known to be vetted by the CIA and other Establishment/intelligence agencies, as co-founder Larry Sanders has confirmed; see here, full interview with Glenn Greenwald on July 31, 2024 here, other interviews here. I've never liked the term "deep state" because it implies that there is another one; see my 2008 essay "Deep State Doublethink." See also my "From Transparent Conspiracy to In-Your-Face Fascism," Apr. 20, 2023.
[21] See Carl Deconinck, "German Government launches initiative to target 'conspiracy thinking,'" BrusselsSignal.eu, Feb. 27, 2025 and Beratungskompass-Verschwoerungsdenken.de. Both retr. March 26, 2025.
[22] E.g., Jeffrey Sachs, John Mearsheimer, Douglas Macgregor, Scott
Ritter, Ray McGovern, Larry Johnson, Scott Horton, Alastair Crooke, Philip
Giraldi, Chas Freeman, Max Blumenthal, Aaron Mate, et al., whose writings are
readily available on the internet and are regular guests on Andrew Napolitano's
"Judging
Freedom" podcast. For everything to do with Ukraine, see
Horton, op. cit. and on Israel see Amnesty International, op. cit., and
especially TheGrayZone.com.
