One side's alleged lament goes that Cheney and his comrades fucked up Iraq, therefore America has a moral obligation to help fix it. The problem with this thinking is that one must assume that, whoever "America" is, they have any intention of fixing whatever "it" is.
One can avoid acknowledging fault in accepting fallacious assertions at face-value by finding the most absurd version of the same lie. This makes the equation so small that the equals sign appears to be something other than what it is, which is an "is". But the solution to a problem based on a lie, no matter how small the lie, is not an "is". As a matter of fact, it is always an "is not".
Most people are birthed on this earth to dedicate their entire lives believing what they are told even when they don't. So even when they don't believe that a mission is protective or humanitarian, they think that by carrying out military operations at the behest of whatever other interests, to put it nicely, a positive end can be achieved as a side-effect. Like, "Yes it is this, but it is also that."
Plugging that in, you get on one side putative representatives of the people in politics and media aligning themselves with those who stand to profit from a "four corners of the globe seek & destroy mission", an equals sign in the middle, and "less of these scary bad guys" on the right. Even the smallest version of this lie is so fucking huge that there are people who don't believe it who will nevertheless give those telling it the benefit of the doubt.
This kind of logic is subsidized by the constant threatening presentation of a somehow always new and growing most-evil-army-ever, coupled with mild media skepticism of tactics and/or strategy to make it look like a discussion is taking place. The most passive side-effect to result is "we cannot do nothing". Quite a convenient conclusion that. At the end of the day it means "better anyone else but me" and all hands are washed of fact that the faultiness of the equation is deliberate, because the whole problem is an outright lie worthy of no doubt and no benefit thereof.
You'll hear the occasional talk of how bombing only grows the army bigger, even how the controlled chaos for perpetual war is the goal, but you never hear about how growing the biggest armies is precisely the project, only that they were grown, and how dumb we are in making the same mistakes again and again.
Words apparently matter. They give comfort to believer and non-believer alike. As long as we can parse just one actual notion out of the entire book of lies, their power will not have been diminished.
You didn't have to be a hardcore supporter of Bill Jeff XDII during the Great Starr Fishing Tripp to know that is' connotation - that is, the potential variant meaning of "is" - can be technically germane to a matter under discussion. Depending on what it is, of course. And then there's the heart of the matter, without which there wouldn't even be a question.
What is it? What is is? What is what?
Watching Bill Jeff XDII's testimony in context, you witness a witness who, in basing his truth upon temporal reflection, swings emotionally from discomfort with the discussion to pride at his own grammatical gymnastics. It is a remarkable thing to observe. On a personal level, such verbal dexterity matters. Clearly no liar cares about authenticity, but the appearance of it is crucial. Still, it takes a special brand of narcissist to be proud of his dishonesty.
It's become more and more clear that the order of military action necessitates no nod from the public. It is more plausible consent than actual consent requiring only their money and ignorantly raised children.
Can plausible consent be withdrawn? This endless exercise is like an experiment to see how few would be willing to cast all these simplest explanations aside and call out the lie for all its inglory, no matter who is telling it.
If anything at all, that's where the dissent should begin. Don't call it the truth just because more people are dying, or say there must be some truth to it because you cannot otherwise reconcile being wholly powerless to do anything about it. The least you can do is call it what it is.
Otherwise, it is what it was and will forever be.
One can avoid acknowledging fault in accepting fallacious assertions at face-value by finding the most absurd version of the same lie. This makes the equation so small that the equals sign appears to be something other than what it is, which is an "is". But the solution to a problem based on a lie, no matter how small the lie, is not an "is". As a matter of fact, it is always an "is not".
Most people are birthed on this earth to dedicate their entire lives believing what they are told even when they don't. So even when they don't believe that a mission is protective or humanitarian, they think that by carrying out military operations at the behest of whatever other interests, to put it nicely, a positive end can be achieved as a side-effect. Like, "Yes it is this, but it is also that."
Plugging that in, you get on one side putative representatives of the people in politics and media aligning themselves with those who stand to profit from a "four corners of the globe seek & destroy mission", an equals sign in the middle, and "less of these scary bad guys" on the right. Even the smallest version of this lie is so fucking huge that there are people who don't believe it who will nevertheless give those telling it the benefit of the doubt.
This kind of logic is subsidized by the constant threatening presentation of a somehow always new and growing most-evil-army-ever, coupled with mild media skepticism of tactics and/or strategy to make it look like a discussion is taking place. The most passive side-effect to result is "we cannot do nothing". Quite a convenient conclusion that. At the end of the day it means "better anyone else but me" and all hands are washed of fact that the faultiness of the equation is deliberate, because the whole problem is an outright lie worthy of no doubt and no benefit thereof.
You'll hear the occasional talk of how bombing only grows the army bigger, even how the controlled chaos for perpetual war is the goal, but you never hear about how growing the biggest armies is precisely the project, only that they were grown, and how dumb we are in making the same mistakes again and again.
Words apparently matter. They give comfort to believer and non-believer alike. As long as we can parse just one actual notion out of the entire book of lies, their power will not have been diminished.
__
You didn't have to be a hardcore supporter of Bill Jeff XDII during the Great Starr Fishing Tripp to know that is' connotation - that is, the potential variant meaning of "is" - can be technically germane to a matter under discussion. Depending on what it is, of course. And then there's the heart of the matter, without which there wouldn't even be a question.
What is it? What is is? What is what?
Watching Bill Jeff XDII's testimony in context, you witness a witness who, in basing his truth upon temporal reflection, swings emotionally from discomfort with the discussion to pride at his own grammatical gymnastics. It is a remarkable thing to observe. On a personal level, such verbal dexterity matters. Clearly no liar cares about authenticity, but the appearance of it is crucial. Still, it takes a special brand of narcissist to be proud of his dishonesty.
It's become more and more clear that the order of military action necessitates no nod from the public. It is more plausible consent than actual consent requiring only their money and ignorantly raised children.
Can plausible consent be withdrawn? This endless exercise is like an experiment to see how few would be willing to cast all these simplest explanations aside and call out the lie for all its inglory, no matter who is telling it.
If anything at all, that's where the dissent should begin. Don't call it the truth just because more people are dying, or say there must be some truth to it because you cannot otherwise reconcile being wholly powerless to do anything about it. The least you can do is call it what it is.
Otherwise, it is what it was and will forever be.
