Rusty wrote about something I neglected, because I wasn't sure how to frame the issue. I considered posting something using precisely the same quote from Michael Yon that Dr. Shackleford used here. While folks like Chuck Hagel suggest we're losing in Iraq, based on the train wreck of incompetent reporting and distorted information provided by MSM, genuinely astonishing things are happening that point to precisely the opposite conclusion. Does anyone understand how difficult a global war against stateless totalitarianism actually is? And does anyone appreciate the almost-miraculous fact that we're not just holding our own, but beating them at their own game one small victory at a time?

By way of analogy, suppose the military had decided to suppress the information that Sherman had taken and burnt Atlanta in 1864 (ignoring the fact that suppression of such an overt event would have been almost impossible)? Well, McClellan would have won the election backed by the anti-war Copperheads; the Union probably would have withdrawn troops from the South; and slavery would have continued another 20 to 30 years in the US, almost into the 20th Century. In addition, the US might well have not entered WWI and the Allies might have lost that war, leading to German domination of the European subcontinent, extermination of most of European Jewry in the mid-20th Century, and precipitating a maelstrom of social and political consequences that are so unlike what we know now that we'd be living on a virtually alien planet, if we were living at all.

Because it really was rather close. The only thing that prevented a defeat of Lincoln in 1864 was the Union victory in Atlanta, and a few other skirmishes. That gave the population enough confidence to stick with it even after the loss of nearly a million men. Yes, that's right, we're balking after less than 2,000 US deaths, and the American Civil War killed almost a million soldiers and severely wounded several million more. That's millions, not thousands.

I don't know what it takes to get the military to recognize the significance of this propaganda dimension of the war, but they have to learn it somehow, and pretty quickly. And we need another two-dozen Michael Yons, if possible. Any millionaires out there mulling over what to do with your well-earned gains?

Does anyone in a position to run for President in 2008 understand this?

I once saw the original Picasso painting, Woman With Guitar, (depicted below) on display in the museum at San Simeon. Looking at a print or reproduction gives absolutely no idea what the painting is about, because the meaning is revealed only in the brushstrokes and can be seen only if you're standing three feet from the original and looking very carefully. I suppose the broad cubist patterns have some significance to esoteric students of art, but what none of these reproductions reveal is the horrific vision that emerges from the brushstrokes themselves. It's Picasso's image of the Apocalypse, with demons, Satanic figures, and other hellish characters emerging on foot and horseback from the gates of hell, prepared to submerge the Earth in unconstrained destruction. There isn't even a hint of this image conveyed in a reproduction it's so subtle, and seeing the original convinces the observer that Picasso must have painted such images in an altered state of consciousness. He must have been like a machine, sculpting subtle 3D structures out of paint to produce a breathtaking landscape that's all but invisible from six feet away.

Something like that is going on with this War on Totalitarianism 3.x, because the strokes that reveal the real story are nearly invisible to us... and totally invisible to most of the world. The troops on the ground know the details, as do their superiors, but except for a few hints that squeak through with witnesses like Yon they've chosen to keep the real story from us. This, not because it's damning, but out of some misguided sense of clandestine caution.

(Cross-posted by Demosophist to Demosophia)

Posted by: Demosophist at 10:49 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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