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Saturday, November 21, 2015

The Weaponization Of Grief: Paris Terror & The Detriment Of Non-Contextualized News Coverage

Context-Free Coverage Of Terror Helps Perpetuate Its Causes
Jim Naureckas, editor of Fair.org

Excerpt: It feels callous to question the allocation of outrage; empathy is in such short supply in this world that one hesitates to question it when it emerges. But as a long-time citizen of New York City, I’m all too aware of the weaponization of grief. The outpouring of no-context, ahistorical sympathy after 9/11 helped pave the way for a violent reaction that killed in Iraq alone roughly 150 times as many people died in Iraq as died in Lower Manhattan  that day—an opportunistic catastrophe that did more to mock than avenge those deaths. Just as the question of Al-Qaeda’s motives in 2001 provoked more self-congratulation than serious inquiry coverage of Paris in 2015 tends to skirt over political realities. Thus the New York Times could report: “A stunned and confused French capital was again left to wonder: Why us? Once again?” The obvious answer was alluded to obliquely by a soccer stadium spectator: “With all the strikes in Syria, we’re not safe anymore.”

Asymmetric Warfare And The Unwinnability Of War: "To The Spoils Belongs The Victor"


Alan: Human beings' fright-or-flight mechanism is powered by the autonomic (read "autonomous") nervous system. 

 Given homo sapiens' instinctual reactivity, our species is reflexively determined to strike back, to "get even," to kick someone's ass to oblivion, or -- and here is the dangerous part -- at least to kick someone's ass. 

 The possibility (likelihood? ... inevitability? ...) of "blowback" is conveniently ignored.

"Love Your Enemies. Do Good To Those Who Hate You," Luke 6: 27-42

Increasingly, humankind's core question (first posed by Yeshua, the Israeli carpenter) is whether retaliation is helpful; indeed, whether retaliation will become the decisive factor in achieving The Goal of Islamic terror by justifying (and ratifying) a permanent reign of terror and in its wake the collapse of Liberal Democracy's informing freedoms.

Self-Terrorization, The National Pastime



"The profoundest truths are paradoxical."
The Tao Te Ching
Lao Tze
Lionel Giles' translation


Here are a few facts "hidden in plain sight."

1.) In 1979, the Soviet military occupied Afghanistan, certain it could be subdued and annexed it to Empire. Ten years later -- and reprising the American experience in Vietnam -- the Soviet Union, weakened by its persistent but impossible quest, retreated from Afghanistan and shortly thereafter dissolved.

The Afghanistan War And The Breakdown Of The Soviet Union

The Soviet War in Afghanistan, 1979 - 1989 - The Atlantic

www.theatlantic.com/photo/...soviet...in-afghanistan.../100786/


2.) The United States invaded Iraq and after the longest war in American history "declared victory" in a region now enveloped by war, a war that has exacerbated sectarian enmity, leaving behind a political and institutional void that a few thousand ISIS fighters filled in a one day invasion using pick-up trucks and small arms. This rag-tag army conquered the northern "half" of Iraq despite 50,000 Iraqi troops (trained by American mentors over a period of years) "defending" the northern "capital" of Mosul.
"Israeli War Historian, Martin van Creveld's Startling Commentary On The Iraq War"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/06/israeli-war-historian-martin-van.html

Excerpt: "For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president’s men. If convicted, they’ll have plenty of time to mull over their sins." War historian Martin van Creveld is the only non-U.S. author whose writings are obligatory reading by America's Officer Corps."

George Will: "The 2003 Invasion Of Iraq Was The Worst Foreign Policy Decision In U.S. History"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/11/george-will-2003-invasion-of-iraq-worst.html

"Bush's Toxic Legacy In Iraq"

Hans Blix' Fruitless Search For WMD And Bush/Cheney's Rush To War In Iraq

Cheney's Lucid 1994 Rationale For NOT Invading Iraq. Conservatives "Must" See This

"The Fall Of Iraq. Jawdropping Video Footage Of Cheney, Albright, Gen Clarke & Others"


3.) Recent Soviet and American belligerence in the Middle East reveal that stunning applications of firepower only crystallized Arab resistance to Western hegemony leading to jidahist victory however chaotic and culturally destructive that victory has been. 

 It is a surpassingly inconvenient truth that "the rebels live there" and that swashbuckling attempts by western powers to force them into submission/alignment have only created a monstrous Hydra that has worsened the situation across the Middle East -- and the world -- once again demonstrating its ability (first witnessed in the early 20th century when The British Empire was "stopped" in Afghanistan) to defeat, and sometimes collapse, the so-called "Great Powers."

 4.) Blinded by the animal passion of their autonomic nervous systems and unable to reach the higher ground of Reason, American conservatives are determined to repeat the process described above.

Invasions of Afghanistan
Wikipedia


"War, Peace And Political Manipulation: Quotations"

Yeshua Excoriates Fellow Pharisees: "The Woe Passages"

"Twelve Steps For The Recovering Pharisee (Like Me)" By John Fischer
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/12-steps-for-recovering-pharisee-like.html

"Love Your Enemies. Do Good To Those Who Hate You," Luke 6: 27-42

"Do You Know What You're Doing To Me?"
Jesus of Nazareth
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/12/do-you-know-what-youre-doing-to-me.html

"Pope Francis Links"

Pope Francis: Quotations On Finance, Economics, Capitalism And Inequality

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