It isn't "they" who would learn -- you'd think "we" would learn. They are doing fine and know what they are doing. It is the rest of us who are suckers for the story. > > Gene
----- Actually, I don't think so. I haven't believed that war junk since Kennedy, Cuba, and Diem, when the whole topic of `new' war tactics was being debated. It just took a few thoughts about suppressing student and Budadhist demonstrations for months and months and the careless Dragon Lady comments about BBQ referring to the self-imolations. That was pretty damned stunning. I read those stories every week because my father worked for the LA Times and brought home the evening editions he had worked on. I was twenty and it was important to me because of the draft. I was suppose to go die for this asshole? The farce of supporting `democracy' was mind numbing nonsense. Anyway the US military doesn't like to lose wars. And that was understood by George Senior and the first Gulf war. The US got lucky after tweny years and figured it knew what it was doing ... and imediately thought the `lessons' of Vietnam were over. Well the Iraqis didn't forget. On the next turn, they immediately `went to ground'. It was quagmire deja vu. By the time it came to `surge' I couldn't believe what McChrystal and Petraeus were saying and getting listened to. Between 1963 and 2009 was 46 years of surges that had failed. They wanted more troops, just like Westmoreland. Now, its going on 50 years. I think both had convinced themselves that us traitors and the media had lost Vietnam and they were going back to fix things that should have worked, and then specialized in their re-development. Just read his profile on wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_A._McChrystal#Post-military_career And try this on Robert Gates. Note he did Vietnam under an Air Force commission in the CIA, about 50,000 feet above and 10,000 miles due west of Saigon. So he was looking for traction in Nicaragua: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gates They learned one lesson which was control the media message and the public discourse. That's why all the smoke and noise over Stone and Kuznick. I think there has been a change in the propaganda wars. The establishment doesn't care whether what they say is right, wrong, or outright lie. This I think is a change from ye olde Credibility Gap days of yore. We are down to the Nixon test, is it indictable? They've been working on that angle in courts. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
