Everything That's Wrong
Fox News (please don't stop reading because those are the first two words) is really a mechanism to provide Freudian psychotherapy to the United States. With Fox, the most fearful, unloved, meanest, greediest, and least satiable parts of the nation are exposed. It is the quintessential 'Id' that cries out for a balancing Ego and Superego.
Unfortunately, the therapist stops short of addressing these sociopathic urges and instead celebrates them. It's a bit like going to confession with some heavy sins and having the Priest respond: "Cool! Then what'd ya do?"
Today's lesson comes from one Kathleen Troia "K.T." McFarland. Apparently a veteran of the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations in some unreported capacity (one hopes it was janitorial based on her 'analysis'). KT has done a public service by exposing all of the truly baseless and damaging lies that the Right uses to frighten and control their base viewers (average age - 68 - get off their lawns) and to energize (meaning scare the already very scared) the rightists of the country.
It's really their playbook in one brief article. KT is host of her own Fox Show called "DEFCON 3" - DEFCON 3! Breathe KT! It's going to BE OKAY! Bad men aren't going to get you in your sleep OR MAYBE THEY WILL!
Her missive on this occasion is called: Yes, America, it's war. Here's how we can stop losing and start winning. Don't you love how it's framed just like "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus?" Heartwarming and irritating, in not quite equal measures.
Obviously, there are militant radicals who have performed terrorist atrocities in many countries. They have murdered hundreds of innocents, from 17 in California to up to 200 in other attacks, such as Paris, and 34 recently in Brussels. These are tragic losses, but in order to make policy we must understand scale. The problem has to be addressed as it is - a small bloodthirsty enemy - not what it is not - a threat to the existence or general welfare of any Western country.
KT tells us: "According to the head of Europol, 5,000 Europeans have traveled to Syria and Iraq to train and fight with ISIS, and they’ve since returned to Europe. They are sleeper agents setting up sleeper cells. A guerrilla army has invaded Europe."
Umm. 740 million people live in Europe. That's one terrorist for every 148,000 Europeans. Do you think ISIS assigns the 148,000 to each terrorist by name, or do they just block off a territory, like salesmen?
The proportionality is completely shot. I wrote the other day that part of the success of the Brussels attack was that they hit an airport and a train station, forcing a nation of 11 million to come to a complete halt. It's a frightening result - as was their intent - but to what other end? The loss of 34 people is not a significant wound to a country of 11 million or a region of 740 million - no matter how individually horrific it is for the bereaved families. The real impact is shutting down Belgium and having every major airport and train station on the planet double their security budget - again.
KT then tries to do the math: "Not all the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims [as of 2010 - probably lots more in the past 6 years] are extremists or terrorists. Not by a long shot. But even if just 10 percent of 1 percent are radicalized, that’s a staggering 1.6 million people bent on destroying Western civilization and the values we hold dear.
Yes, KT, you are correct. That "not all" was quite an admission. If Muslims were anywhere near as bad as you're making them out to be, there would be at least 1.6 million of them. There's be one on every street corner - as you seem to fear. But there's not, not even close. Even the core ISIS army only says they have 200,000 fighters - and "intelligence estimates" put them closer to 31,000.
Add that to the scary 5,000 guerrillas that KT worries about, and you have, well, what? Less than a tenth of 10% of one percent of Muslims? This is: "the most virulent, lethal, apocalyptic death cult in history?" Really?
Here's the difference between a very scared little fascist like KT and reality. KT wants to do away with 'political correctness' (aka civilization) and institute more policies for the police state, surveillance, and launch all kinds of munitions toward 0,000001% of mostly brown people who share a religion and wish you no harm (I probably left out some 0's there).
The danger to her, aside from the monster under her bed, is trying to beat these guys. "...If we are to defeat radical Islam, it will be only with a multifaceted, comprehensive strategy that calls on all the aspects of the national power of ourselves and our allies – like we summoned to defeat the Nazis in World War II or the Communists in the Cold War." [emphasis added]
And that's where the fear turns up to 11. The Nazi's? The Soviets?
The reality is that the Nazi's had 18 million well-trained troops equipped with some of the most lethal weapons of the day. They held most of Europe at one point, and were allied with the Imperial Japan - which at one point ruled most of Asia. The Soviet Red Army boasted 35-50 million soldiers and a nuclear arsenal deliverable by a modern Nuclear Triad (look it up, Donald). They were allied to or actively oppressing more than half the world at any given moment.
If all the ISIS forces were to make an overnight surprise invasion of Brooklyn (we'd have to give them a ride), they'd be decimated by the NYPD. Even if KT's 1.6 million bad Muslims were anything more than a fever dream, the NATO militaries are likely at a peacetime (relative peacetime) 50 million or so, with all the advanced weapon systems that ISIS could never acquire.
Terrorism is real and needs to be fought - but ISIS is not Nazi Germany. Hell, it's not the Ottoman Empire. It's not Jordan. It's a tiny but especially nasty bunch or extremists taking advantage of a failed state in Iraq that we Americans caused to fail.
If we follow KT's prescribed steps, the US will be at a full war footing - except the "thousands of American ground forces" who will not be asked to participate. Which is for political reasons, obviously, because if ISIS was 1% as bad as KT says it is, we'd be forced to commit troops.
She says we should use our communications capabilities to yell FREEDOM at a bunch of people hiding from our advanced explosives. We'll shut down their banking and commerce because we can do that even though we've been trying to do that and can't do that.
Hilariously, we "...may have to hold our noses and partner with countries we do not always approve of." Oh we may have to do that, huh? We've been in bed with so many despots and scumbags for so many decades, I think any new 'partners' would have to hold their noses. This woman worked in the Nixon administration?
The more we ratchet up the fear to DEFCON 3! the more we become the clowns and cowards that KT wants us to be. And she seems like one of the true believers who can't see past the Fox curtain to where the snake oil is being brewed. She seems to really think that this is an existential threat.
Are we 'losing?' What does losing look like? We're fighting an enemy who has literally no chance of destroying our country or - at a macro level - even harming us. What, exactly, are we losing?
But there is one, and only one way to lose. If we go full "Bush 9/11" and do it to ourselves. If we allow ourselves to join KT and the huddled, fear-shocked Foxers under their desks and beg big strong Donald (or ugly little Ted) to take care of the bad people for us. Take our civil right and our privacy, bomb and murder people, in our name, who are kind of near somebody who looks sort of mean and lives in Somalia or Yemen or something - doesn't matter. We lose if we expend the real freedoms we have left quivering in front of the Mouse that Roared.
But an America like that would not be an America worth defending. But don't worry - that's just the 'Id' talking. We don't have to listen.
Unfortunately, the therapist stops short of addressing these sociopathic urges and instead celebrates them. It's a bit like going to confession with some heavy sins and having the Priest respond: "Cool! Then what'd ya do?"
Today's lesson comes from one Kathleen Troia "K.T." McFarland. Apparently a veteran of the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations in some unreported capacity (one hopes it was janitorial based on her 'analysis'). KT has done a public service by exposing all of the truly baseless and damaging lies that the Right uses to frighten and control their base viewers (average age - 68 - get off their lawns) and to energize (meaning scare the already very scared) the rightists of the country.
It's really their playbook in one brief article. KT is host of her own Fox Show called "DEFCON 3" - DEFCON 3! Breathe KT! It's going to BE OKAY! Bad men aren't going to get you in your sleep OR MAYBE THEY WILL!
Her missive on this occasion is called: Yes, America, it's war. Here's how we can stop losing and start winning. Don't you love how it's framed just like "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus?" Heartwarming and irritating, in not quite equal measures.
Obviously, there are militant radicals who have performed terrorist atrocities in many countries. They have murdered hundreds of innocents, from 17 in California to up to 200 in other attacks, such as Paris, and 34 recently in Brussels. These are tragic losses, but in order to make policy we must understand scale. The problem has to be addressed as it is - a small bloodthirsty enemy - not what it is not - a threat to the existence or general welfare of any Western country.
KT tells us: "According to the head of Europol, 5,000 Europeans have traveled to Syria and Iraq to train and fight with ISIS, and they’ve since returned to Europe. They are sleeper agents setting up sleeper cells. A guerrilla army has invaded Europe."
Umm. 740 million people live in Europe. That's one terrorist for every 148,000 Europeans. Do you think ISIS assigns the 148,000 to each terrorist by name, or do they just block off a territory, like salesmen?
The proportionality is completely shot. I wrote the other day that part of the success of the Brussels attack was that they hit an airport and a train station, forcing a nation of 11 million to come to a complete halt. It's a frightening result - as was their intent - but to what other end? The loss of 34 people is not a significant wound to a country of 11 million or a region of 740 million - no matter how individually horrific it is for the bereaved families. The real impact is shutting down Belgium and having every major airport and train station on the planet double their security budget - again.
KT then tries to do the math: "Not all the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims [as of 2010 - probably lots more in the past 6 years] are extremists or terrorists. Not by a long shot. But even if just 10 percent of 1 percent are radicalized, that’s a staggering 1.6 million people bent on destroying Western civilization and the values we hold dear.
Yes, KT, you are correct. That "not all" was quite an admission. If Muslims were anywhere near as bad as you're making them out to be, there would be at least 1.6 million of them. There's be one on every street corner - as you seem to fear. But there's not, not even close. Even the core ISIS army only says they have 200,000 fighters - and "intelligence estimates" put them closer to 31,000.
Add that to the scary 5,000 guerrillas that KT worries about, and you have, well, what? Less than a tenth of 10% of one percent of Muslims? This is: "the most virulent, lethal, apocalyptic death cult in history?" Really?
Here's the difference between a very scared little fascist like KT and reality. KT wants to do away with 'political correctness' (aka civilization) and institute more policies for the police state, surveillance, and launch all kinds of munitions toward 0,000001% of mostly brown people who share a religion and wish you no harm (I probably left out some 0's there).
The danger to her, aside from the monster under her bed, is trying to beat these guys. "...If we are to defeat radical Islam, it will be only with a multifaceted, comprehensive strategy that calls on all the aspects of the national power of ourselves and our allies – like we summoned to defeat the Nazis in World War II or the Communists in the Cold War." [emphasis added]
And that's where the fear turns up to 11. The Nazi's? The Soviets?
The reality is that the Nazi's had 18 million well-trained troops equipped with some of the most lethal weapons of the day. They held most of Europe at one point, and were allied with the Imperial Japan - which at one point ruled most of Asia. The Soviet Red Army boasted 35-50 million soldiers and a nuclear arsenal deliverable by a modern Nuclear Triad (look it up, Donald). They were allied to or actively oppressing more than half the world at any given moment.
If all the ISIS forces were to make an overnight surprise invasion of Brooklyn (we'd have to give them a ride), they'd be decimated by the NYPD. Even if KT's 1.6 million bad Muslims were anything more than a fever dream, the NATO militaries are likely at a peacetime (relative peacetime) 50 million or so, with all the advanced weapon systems that ISIS could never acquire.
Terrorism is real and needs to be fought - but ISIS is not Nazi Germany. Hell, it's not the Ottoman Empire. It's not Jordan. It's a tiny but especially nasty bunch or extremists taking advantage of a failed state in Iraq that we Americans caused to fail.
If we follow KT's prescribed steps, the US will be at a full war footing - except the "thousands of American ground forces" who will not be asked to participate. Which is for political reasons, obviously, because if ISIS was 1% as bad as KT says it is, we'd be forced to commit troops.
She says we should use our communications capabilities to yell FREEDOM at a bunch of people hiding from our advanced explosives. We'll shut down their banking and commerce because we can do that even though we've been trying to do that and can't do that.
Hilariously, we "...may have to hold our noses and partner with countries we do not always approve of." Oh we may have to do that, huh? We've been in bed with so many despots and scumbags for so many decades, I think any new 'partners' would have to hold their noses. This woman worked in the Nixon administration?
The more we ratchet up the fear to DEFCON 3! the more we become the clowns and cowards that KT wants us to be. And she seems like one of the true believers who can't see past the Fox curtain to where the snake oil is being brewed. She seems to really think that this is an existential threat.
Are we 'losing?' What does losing look like? We're fighting an enemy who has literally no chance of destroying our country or - at a macro level - even harming us. What, exactly, are we losing?
But there is one, and only one way to lose. If we go full "Bush 9/11" and do it to ourselves. If we allow ourselves to join KT and the huddled, fear-shocked Foxers under their desks and beg big strong Donald (or ugly little Ted) to take care of the bad people for us. Take our civil right and our privacy, bomb and murder people, in our name, who are kind of near somebody who looks sort of mean and lives in Somalia or Yemen or something - doesn't matter. We lose if we expend the real freedoms we have left quivering in front of the Mouse that Roared.
But an America like that would not be an America worth defending. But don't worry - that's just the 'Id' talking. We don't have to listen.
posted by fiduciary at 12:53 PM
1 Comments:
Excellent post, as usual, you've got it (or her) by the tail!
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