T-Rex Tillerson is sure putting the screws to Russia for supporting Syria’s President Assad. No wonder, after that stunt that Assad just pulled with the sarin gas. But wait, was it sarin gas? Well, it was some kind of chemical weapon, right? I mean, he did use chemical weapons, right? Didn’t he? Of course he did! We all saw the pictures. Well, unless they were fake pictures. Ok, let’s take a deep breath and line this up. Syria was kind of a problem, but then the president of Syria used chemical weapons, which is way worse than what he was doing before. Then, the president of the United States bombed Syria and destroyed Assad’s ability to to attack his people because the president of the United States cares deeply about the Syrian people. Also, this shows that the president of the United States is a quick-thinking man of action who is not afraid to confront Russia over a middle-eastern dispute. Ok. I think I have it straight now. Why else would the US president do such a thing?
I’m trying to remember, has something like this ever happened before? Hmm. There was that thing where the US invaded Iraq because the Iraqis pulled those babies out of the incubators. Was that real? Or that thing about Saddam gassing his own people and having weapons of mass destruction. Or were those both lies, too?
In all of the media hype, do you notice that no one seems to be questioning whether Assad really used chemical weapons, or whether he even had any to use, or why the US bombed a useless air base and missed the runways, or why the president acted without approval from congress, or why no one is wondering why the US is suddenly so interested in Syria, or whether bombing Syria helps Syrians in any way, or how this helps the US war against the Islamic State, or what this says about US policy regarding foreign intervention? That’s the problem with ignoring the premise. Accept a false (or questionable) premise and your narrative, and conclusions, can get really weird.
Maybe a bit off-topic, but I want to end with this passage by Robin Daverman that I just read on Quora regarding the seduction of looking to past glory:
When a country is under stress, it tends to fall back to the last time it was viewed as “glorious” by itself. The way the Iranians fell back to theocracy, the Arabs fell back to the Caliphate as described in the Islamic Golden Age, Russia looking back longingly at Autocracy, and Trump with his America First – they are emotionally the same thing, which is to return to the past glory. Well the past glory of Korea was the Joseon Dynasty from the 13th to the 19th century, and that’s what Kim the First took as his inspiration, including the fondness for the homicidal palace intrigue.
What it will take to Make America, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and the Rest of the World Great Again (MARINKRoWGA!), I don’t really know. But, I don’t think it will look quite like a scene out of American Graffiti.
The Daily Take 