"to scare the bejeezus out of ignorant Americans" I think they're the actual target of the shock and awe, I certainly was constantly shocked and awed by the stupidity, the carnage and the waste, the massive waste in so many different varieties.
"as long as the weapons are bought, the Mission Is Accomplished" that's the "photoshop artiste…
"to scare the bejeezus out of ignorant Americans" I think they're the actual target of the shock and awe, I certainly was constantly shocked and awed by the stupidity, the carnage and the waste, the massive waste in so many different varieties.
"as long as the weapons are bought, the Mission Is Accomplished" that's the "photoshop artistes and script doctors" whole raison d'etre. With the USSR threat exposed as a paper tiger, why didn't the military budget plummet, and stay plummeted? There's always going to be the next boogey man, we got it in the form of terrorism, specifically Islamic terrorism, that massive existential threat that had killed no one on US soil before 9/11 but then required even more military buildup than the Soviet threat. It's pathetically easy to scare folks with irrational BS, they should be more afraid of their bathtubs.
When he was captured by the Americans, Herman Goering, who apparently was a guy you couldn't help but like on a personal level, was asked by them how it was that the Germans, so cultured and advanced could do what they did by following the Nazi program of hate, and he replied it had nothing to do with being German or Nazi, that such a thing could happen in any country, because while ordinary people naturally would not choose to go to war if it was their decision, they would also blindly put their faith in a leader who could convince them that out there was someone who would harm them unless they allowed such a leader to do what he felt necessary to protect them.
The US response to 9-11 made that claim a correct one. As the years went by, I would ask supporters of those wars, why, if the Muslim threat is so overwhelming, they simply didn't just buy guns and blow people away just like we do on the regular, a tactic that couldn't be foiled as it requires nothing but a few bucks and the willingness to kill and be killed.
The upshoot of all this has been a surveillance state that we were told was aimed at terrorists, but even those on the right who once supported such programs, now realize all too late that it was always meant for all of us. A people who give up their liberty for supposed security deserve and get neither, as Benjamin Franklin said over 250 years ago.
"The US response to 9-11 made that claim a correct one."
To me, what we've seen with Trump and his supporters makes that case to a far greater extent, and is much scarier. Repeatedly, I was astounded at how quickly and how thoroughly folks could blind themselves into passionately believing absurdities, which then fueled equally passionate hate and acceptance of obvious cruelties. How close did we come to something similar to the Nazis in Germany? It's still going on, look at the 1/6 deniers. What's at the root of this is a mindset, a personality type, those who are authoritarian, those whose nature is to "blindly put their faith in a leader". It's far more common in conservative types which makes this recent crap coming from the left more disconcerting.
"to scare the bejeezus out of ignorant Americans" I think they're the actual target of the shock and awe, I certainly was constantly shocked and awed by the stupidity, the carnage and the waste, the massive waste in so many different varieties.
"as long as the weapons are bought, the Mission Is Accomplished" that's the "photoshop artistes and script doctors" whole raison d'etre. With the USSR threat exposed as a paper tiger, why didn't the military budget plummet, and stay plummeted? There's always going to be the next boogey man, we got it in the form of terrorism, specifically Islamic terrorism, that massive existential threat that had killed no one on US soil before 9/11 but then required even more military buildup than the Soviet threat. It's pathetically easy to scare folks with irrational BS, they should be more afraid of their bathtubs.
When he was captured by the Americans, Herman Goering, who apparently was a guy you couldn't help but like on a personal level, was asked by them how it was that the Germans, so cultured and advanced could do what they did by following the Nazi program of hate, and he replied it had nothing to do with being German or Nazi, that such a thing could happen in any country, because while ordinary people naturally would not choose to go to war if it was their decision, they would also blindly put their faith in a leader who could convince them that out there was someone who would harm them unless they allowed such a leader to do what he felt necessary to protect them.
The US response to 9-11 made that claim a correct one. As the years went by, I would ask supporters of those wars, why, if the Muslim threat is so overwhelming, they simply didn't just buy guns and blow people away just like we do on the regular, a tactic that couldn't be foiled as it requires nothing but a few bucks and the willingness to kill and be killed.
The upshoot of all this has been a surveillance state that we were told was aimed at terrorists, but even those on the right who once supported such programs, now realize all too late that it was always meant for all of us. A people who give up their liberty for supposed security deserve and get neither, as Benjamin Franklin said over 250 years ago.
"The US response to 9-11 made that claim a correct one."
To me, what we've seen with Trump and his supporters makes that case to a far greater extent, and is much scarier. Repeatedly, I was astounded at how quickly and how thoroughly folks could blind themselves into passionately believing absurdities, which then fueled equally passionate hate and acceptance of obvious cruelties. How close did we come to something similar to the Nazis in Germany? It's still going on, look at the 1/6 deniers. What's at the root of this is a mindset, a personality type, those who are authoritarian, those whose nature is to "blindly put their faith in a leader". It's far more common in conservative types which makes this recent crap coming from the left more disconcerting.
You know the MIC is desperate when they wage “war” on the nebulous notion of “climate catastrophe.”