verging_on_random

These are derangerous times

January 29, 2007 on 12:23 pm | In Uncategorized |

This was supposed to be the New American Century but it’s falling in a heap after a few short years. And the people who proclaimed it, who gloried in it, the people who boasted of how they couldn’t give a shit about anyone else, the people who puffed up their chests and cried “We won the Cold War baby”, the people who went ballistic after the attack on the World Trade Centre because someone would dare do that to the USA!!!, the people who in short convinced themselves that they were god’s new chosen ones and it was their destiny to rule the world - these people aren’t happy. In fact they’re veeerrry pissed off.

In their fury and frustration they’re lashing out anywhere they can, revealing in the process the depths of their obsessions, neuroses and fantasies.

One recent example is their reaction to a speech by US Senator Jim Webb, given in response to Bush’s state of the union address to Congress last week. In typical fashion the neo-con baboons couldn’t care less what he actually said. All they care about is that he had the gall to criticise the Bushistas’ world view. As far as they’re concerned that makes Webb a virtual traitor, fair game to be vilified any way you can find.

The trouble is Webb’s newly-elected to Congress after beating a Republican who was touted as a future president. He’s a bona fide Vietnam war hero, at least until his enemies find a way of questioning his record. As far as they’ve been able to discover he never took drugs or had sex with someone he shouldn’t have and they haven’t had time to invent anything yet, so Webb’s a bit difficult to attack on a personal level. But that hasn’t stopped them trying.

Here’s a summary of one such attack. Bear in mind that this isn’t some obscure blogger writing who’ll get 3 readers tops, this is something linked by a neo-con talk show host whose blog has a huge readership. It claims to be written by an ‘active duty officer with more than 25 years of service’, even though he’s too shy to actually give his name. The blogosphere is infested with people who seek to add credibility to their views by claiming to be soldiers on active service but decline to give their names. Perhaps they’re all modest. But let’s read how this supposed officer, writing for the masses in an article that’s supposed to be taken seriously, goes about discrediting Senator Webb.

Well for one thing, he disposes of any idea that Webb is a responsible legislator giving a well-considered view on Iraq. Not al all:

What I saw was a simmering cauldron of arrogance, anger and resentment. His eyes were not the eyes of a serious thinker but those of a man who is clearly very, very angry and his words bear this out.

Apparently anonymous officer thinks it’s impossible to be angry and think seriously at the same time. But wait, it gets a lot better. Why is Webb angry, do you think? Is it because of the American soldiers being killed in Iraq (of course we can discount the possibility that it’s because of the Iraqis being killed in Iraq, hardly anyone in the USA seems to even notice them)? Is it because he believes President Bush to be an incompetent idiot? Nooooo … nothing as straightforward as that.

But on close inspection, something about Senator Webb is very disturbing. Perhaps it harkens all the way back to his midshipman days in Annapolis and a simple boxing match lost. You see, James Webb lost a boxing match to a man he clearly despises, Oliver North. Webb, as chronicled by Robert Timberg in his best-selling book, The Nightingale’s Song, was heavily favored to beat North in the Brigade boxing championships but lost. Timberg claims that Webb believed he was intentionally denied the title by poor preparation from his coach, or more accurately the boxing coach made sure Ollie was better prepared to beat him! Regardless, Webb believes he was wronged and today we can see this streak of vengeance in him.

Take your time … read it over once or twice. Oliver North, if you’re trying to place him, is an ex-colonel and convicted criminal who got tied up in illegal arms sales back in the Reagan years. I would have thought a lot of people despise Ollie North, although anonymous officer clearly doesn’t. What anonymous officer would have you believe is that because Webb lost a boxing match to North more than 30 years ago, Webb’s lusting for vengeance, which he gets by … ummm … bad-mouthing the Bush Administration.

Well that, if true, makes Senator Webb one very sick puppy, along with everyone who voted for him. So anonymous officer must have some evidence that backs up this bizarre claim, right? Well no, actually, anonymous officer doesn’t even try. He Just Knows - he can see it in Jim’s eyes.

In other words the whole article is a crock, but that’s not the worst part. The truly scary thing is that somebody would choose to write such an absurd rant without understanding how retarded it made them look and somebody like Hugh Hewitt would consider it worth publishing on a site that pretends to be a source of serious political analysis. It’s truly scary because this article is the product of a mind that’s literally deranged - a mind that dwells in an alternative universe where there is no need to arrange facts in a logical order to justify a conclusion. In this alternative universe, all you have to do to make something true is believe in it.

Unfortunately there are occasional signs that this kind of mental illness extends all the way up the Bush administration to the very top. And that, I think, is why so many people correctly rate George W Bush as the greatest threat to global peace in the world today.