Sometimes someon has to take a risk
November 26, 2002 2:16 PM Subscribe
Does anyone here remember Daniel Ellsberg of the PentagonPapers fame? Well he may be relevant again and not only that, maybe essential.
Ah, Ellsberg...his Watergate compadre Woodward seems to have slowly metamorphed into a sycophant. Ellsberg seems to have held the line. We all should do so well.
He misses one aspect of the current war though - even though the Bush adminstration broadcasts a torrent of lies distortions, half truths, and propaganda (more so than previous adminstrations, that is) in the form of sound bites, slogans, terror warnings, and so on, the actual views of top Bush cabinet - on US geopolitical strategy in the Mideast, on the wisdom of establishing an American World Empire (they call it the new "Pax Americana") and on many other subjects are available on the internet. So: "Rebuilding America's Defenses".
But Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Co. need not fear that the publication of their candid, honest written views - unabashedly imperialist - will hurt them:
Most Americans don't read, and few who read comprehend much due to the shrivelled inernational relations intelligence of US citizens - we don't get out or interact with people outside the US much and so our social intelligence is, in some respects, underdeveloped. Nor do we read much world history. I am not arguing here that Europeans, for example, or people in any country or region around the World are superior to Americans. But Europeans tend to be literate in more than the cultural idioms of their nations of birth. Indeed, most peoples around the World are forced to interact with heterogenous cultural groups and peoples of different nationalities, and this leads to a somewhat expanded social intelligence.
Large culturally homogenous regions like the US are rare: the US, Japan, and Australia come to mind: the Japanese do get out quite a bit, but they are clannish and somewhat insular anyway (so: a single world for foreigner - "Geijin" (sp?)). Americans and Australians share a similar lack of concern for the overall welfare of the world as they spew more hydrocarbons and CO2 (per capita) into the air than peoples anywhere else on the planet - all the while vociferously denying the Global Warming is a myth or that attempts to initiate a world framework agreement on dealing with the issue are fatally flawed (without proposing anything better).
end of rant *wipes brow, blows runny nose*
posted by troutfishing at 3:48 PM on November 26, 2002
He misses one aspect of the current war though - even though the Bush adminstration broadcasts a torrent of lies distortions, half truths, and propaganda (more so than previous adminstrations, that is) in the form of sound bites, slogans, terror warnings, and so on, the actual views of top Bush cabinet - on US geopolitical strategy in the Mideast, on the wisdom of establishing an American World Empire (they call it the new "Pax Americana") and on many other subjects are available on the internet. So: "Rebuilding America's Defenses".
But Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Co. need not fear that the publication of their candid, honest written views - unabashedly imperialist - will hurt them:
Most Americans don't read, and few who read comprehend much due to the shrivelled inernational relations intelligence of US citizens - we don't get out or interact with people outside the US much and so our social intelligence is, in some respects, underdeveloped. Nor do we read much world history. I am not arguing here that Europeans, for example, or people in any country or region around the World are superior to Americans. But Europeans tend to be literate in more than the cultural idioms of their nations of birth. Indeed, most peoples around the World are forced to interact with heterogenous cultural groups and peoples of different nationalities, and this leads to a somewhat expanded social intelligence.
Large culturally homogenous regions like the US are rare: the US, Japan, and Australia come to mind: the Japanese do get out quite a bit, but they are clannish and somewhat insular anyway (so: a single world for foreigner - "Geijin" (sp?)). Americans and Australians share a similar lack of concern for the overall welfare of the world as they spew more hydrocarbons and CO2 (per capita) into the air than peoples anywhere else on the planet - all the while vociferously denying the Global Warming is a myth or that attempts to initiate a world framework agreement on dealing with the issue are fatally flawed (without proposing anything better).
end of rant *wipes brow, blows runny nose*
posted by troutfishing at 3:48 PM on November 26, 2002
Daniel Ellsberg has a website that contains a lot of background information... some historical in
nature, e.g. new transcriptions of Nixon tapes and other material more timely than
ever.
I quit watching the lie-mongers some time back. The war will be much more entertaining filtered through the verisimilitudinator of the Agency.
posted by rushmc at 2:56 PM on November 26, 2002