I was having a debate with my mother many years ago about Iraq and Saddam Hussein. This was during the time of the sanctions, when thousands of kids over there were dying each month at the hands of the Clinton Administration. During the course of that debate I tried to get across the point that even though Hussein was not a desirable person, that we did not offer the Iraqis a viable alternative, and had in fact had deliberately put Saddam back in power after the 1991 U.S. attack on that country. As an aside, I mentioned a story, possibly apocryphal, about Saddam in a staff meeting one day. He got upset with one of the staff members and asked him to step outside the room. He shot and killed him, and then returned to the meeting.
Some time later my mother and I returned to the conversation, and she repeated the story about the shooting. I thought that was interesting as in all of the debate that we endured, that was the only thing that registered with her. Everything else bounced off the surface.
Mom was a smart person and has long since gone under to Alzheimer’s. I mean no disrespect here. It’s the psychological phenomenon that makes me curious. In my years of debating on the Internet, I notice that there are certain “facts” which do not penetrate consciousness. They don’t compute, and hence the mind merely sets them aside. Osama bin Laden is dead, has been for years. The U.S. keeps him “alive” because he’s useful in scaring the American people. It is as if a speaker is speaking and no words leave the mouth.
Anyway, I just embedded three thoughts in the above paragraphs that will not compute with most people. I am wondering, without going back and re-reading, can you tell me what they were? What did those words say that did not penetrate? I’ll bet you remember the story about Saddam shooting the guy. It’s not one of the three.
Piece of Mindful 
People will hold onto those statements which confirm their opinions and disregard facts that contradict them.
Another is the Iranian President “wiping Israel off the map” statement. No matter how many times one provides the translation – which does not say anything like that at all – it is impossible to penetrate those minds who must see Iran as the new enemy.
The lie confirms their opinion therefore the lie must be the truth.
Goebbels knew this universal truth of propaganda. By manipulating the people by first creating a artificial threat, then blame a group as the cause of the threat – any statement applied to that group confirms the threat from that group. Then the people are immune to fact or truth and anything that confirms their position, no matter how outrageous, is held as the “truth”. Then they will do unspeakable horror believing they are acting truthfully.
As long as humans refuse reason – I can see no way to overturn this strategy.
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Blame-shifters need scapegoats. It’s a perfect distraction from being found out to be nothing more than a blowhard wrapped in meaningless process that never produces observable results. “Leaders” like Obama, Clinton(s), Reid, Baucus and hundreds more just like them excell in this pattern of deny, delay, and counter-attack.
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On these two things we can agree.
OBL is dead.
Your mom is a nice lady. I know this because a close relative used to care for her. Oh and by the way this relative said you were the nicest sibling who came to visit.
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Do not spread that around! It messes with my Internet persona.
Thank you for the kind words about Mom. She is a sweetheart.
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I think he’s dead too.
I don’t think it’s correct to say that we deliberately sent SH back to power in 1991. I think it’s more correct to say that we eased up on the demonization and stopped supporting open rebellion in the South, when we realized that there was no coherent plan at all for what would come after him, that the alternatives would likely be worse, and probably closely tied to the Iranian regime. Part of this is because we listened to our allies in the region.
Realists were eventually replaced by fantasists, who could pretend that no one ever imagined that solving Iran’s central strategic problem (while presenting it with an opportunity of the kind not seen for centuries) might possibly happen.
I may have missed it, Mark, but it seems to me that a paid and dedicated Iranian agent getting a whole group of senior Pentagon types to bring about the greatest strategic coup in modern Iranian history ought to get your conspiratorial juices going, but good.
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Not bad. The Shiite and Kurdish rebellions were a natural outgrowth of the toppling of the government, and predictable. And, unwanted. You are one of the few that understand that power wants nothing to do with popular rule. I had not considered that.
But another aspect of that situation is a standard military tactic where you entice the enemy to come out in the open so you can crush him. The Shiites and Kurds did come out, in fact, were encouraged to rise up and rebel by agents within the country distributing transistor radios among the various factions broadcasting the message “Rise Up!”, with HW himself reading the script. The U.S., now using Saddam, did crush them.
The problem of Iran was manageable back then, and is now, but it is a problem, as that country has widespread support throughout the region. The problem for the U.S. is one of toppling a popular government. It will be an exercise in both intrigue and propaganda, to whip up public support over here, and crush a popular rebellion over there. It could well be a bloodbath, and the real “nuclear option” might be pulled out of the hat. These are, after all, mad men.
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The best management of the Iran problem is to put Iran’s clients into power in countries that border Iran. At least, that’s what we’ve been doing.
Actually, it’s not that bad an idea. Iran doesn’t need to get serious about a nuclear device if all its strategic problems are resolved. (All but one, anyway.)
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Iran is only a “problem” in the imperialist mindset. Otherwise, it’s just a country minding its own business.
But if it can develop a nuke, it will be a nuclear-armed country minding its own business, and we won’t be able to attack it.
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