(Updated below) (Update II) (Update III) (Update IV) (Update V)
This is what I have previously written concerning incompetence and violence:
Ignorance breeds fear. Fear fosters hate. In turn, hate leads inevitably to violence.
The History of Humanity constitutes a sad and tragic testament to this senseless and vicious progression. Incidentally, there is a further underlying, self-evident axiom to this assertion which posits that violence is the last refuge of incompetence - incompetence as nations, as communities, and as thinking, reasoning human beings.
Therefore, when will we acknowledge the fact, once and for all, that it is the incompetents among us who consistently promulgate violence as a solution for anything, to everything?
For the sake of our continued existence, we must strive to forget nevermore that rationalizations supporting the use of violence - other than the need for the rightful exercise of self-defense when set upon by a genuinely clear, present and immediate danger - invariably constitute deceitful fabrications meant to conceal, disguise or justify incompetence ...
... including our very own for embracing such mendacity
The reason I am quoting myself here is very simple: several developments have occured in the last five days or so which further prove the point that "violence is the last refuge of the incompetent". Let us look at just one of them, shall we?
Item: The rattling of sabers in support for a military confrontation with Iran have been sounding louder of late, with increasing frequency at that. It appears that everything is being done to justify a military intervention against Iran or to provoke Iran into firing the first salvo - including covert operations. The corridors of Power in Washington have been whispering in earnest that an uptick in tensions between the US and Iran could emerge this fall, especially if the Iraq 'surge' is deemed to be ineffective.
Consequently, behold the propaganda machine already working its magic in full steam mode in order to sell an Iran War:
Iran is secretly forging ties with al-Qaida elements and Sunni Arab militias in Iraq in preparation for a summer showdown with coalition forces intended to tip a wavering US Congress into voting for full military withdrawal, US officials say. "Iran is fighting a proxy war in Iraq and it's a very dangerous course for them to be following. They are already committing daily acts of war against US and British forces," a senior US official in Baghdad warned.
Not surprisingly, other incompetents are (or have been) anticipating, promoting, advocating, justifying and cheering - if not actually singing about - the prospect of war with Iran.
Why? Because in their intellectual sloth-driven minds, war-solves-all-problems.
Obviously, the Iraq theatre would serve as a springboard for an attack on Iran - it is therefore not surprising that the US Pentagon has been making plans to keep bases and troops in Iraq for decades to come.
Forget the fact that fundamentalist-shiite Iran has always had "problems" with sunnis. Forget also the fact that going into Iraq to begin with was idiocy at best and that the surge is (predictably) not working - more war is needed to serve oil-obsessed interests. As much as it was sheer incompetence to go into Afghanistan (instead of Pakistan) and stay there, the never-ending Iraq War proves that incompetence knows no bound. Hence, a war with Iran will tragically confirm the rule.
Let us not forget that the politics of ignorance and fear still rule the day ... and that these not only prevailed in the cases of Afghanistan and Iraq, but that they are running the same script in order to prevail in the case of Iran as well.
Unless, that is, we awake in time to shake off our collective intellectual sloth and prevent such a catastrophy from being perpetrated in our names.
Hence, the critical question is: will we embrace such mendacity again?
Update: 05/22/2007 - News are out that the Bush Administration is "quietly implementing a second Iraq troop surge that would nearly double the number of combat troops in Iraq this year (increasing the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq from 162,000 now to more than 200,000)". Iraq as a springboard indeed. Proof again that incompetence is nothing but consistent with itself.
Update II: 05/22/2007 (bis) - This just in - no more deadlines for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. While I am not one for conspiracy theories, I do find this development rather ... convenient, with regards to the subject discussed in this entry - no?
Update III: 05/22/2007 (rebis) - Interesting - according to ABC News (via Think Progress), President Bush has directed the CIA to carry out covert operations both inside and outside Iran and aimed directly at weakening the Iranian regime. I hate to say "I told you so", but ...
Update IV: 05/23/2007 - Two US aicraft carriers have reached the Persian Gulf. 'Nuff said.
Update V: 05/24/2007 - Darth Vader is clearing a path to bomb Iran. Here we go again indeed ... Gulf of Tonkin, anyone?
(Cross-posted at Another Point of View)
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