There is an old saying about not being able to see the forest because of all the trees in the way. That can be a real danger in these times, with many people seeing certain events as completely discreet, independent things without seeing that more is going on than one particular data point.
Various pundits out there see and discuss various things going on in the world. Many of these discussions are quite insightful. On whatever topic, there are people willing to talk about the details. But there is a tendency to focus on one thing that is happening in the world when this happens.
Part of this, I think, stems from the way the news is covered and presented. We see stories and events as discreet points in tie. There is an event in Iraq – single point. There is a report of a possible test of nuclear weapons in North Korea – single point. There is a war in Lebanon – single point.
Maybe they are not single points. Maybe they are related. I happen to think they are. Instead of discreet points and events, I see underlying suspicious coordination. Sectarian violence in Iraq begins to accelerate where it really had not been a major problem.Apparently driven by Shi'ite militias of a cleric tied to Iran. PKK elements (living in an area 10 miles from the Iranian border) suddenly start offenses into Turkey. An Iranian proxy begins a war in Lebanon.
Discreet points? I suspect not.
Great point. Perhaps the single greatest mistake Americans, particularly the port side, have made is the assumption that Iraq is a conflict (point) unto itself. As I have said a gazillion times, Iraq is only one battle( just like Iwo Jima, Tarawa, and the Battle of the Bulge in WWII)in the larger war against radical Islam (Islamofascism). As tragic as every one of the 2500 plus casualties have been, we must keep these deaths in perspective. We lost over 6500 Marines in the battle for Iwo Jima. This war, and I don’t mean just Iraq, will be a long bloody affair. We will win some of the battles…and unfortunately, we’ll loose some as well.
To sum it all up- Iraq is just one way point. Others that remain to be tackled are Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, N. Korea, and the unbelievable mess in Maylasia (to name a few).
As you so eloquently stated:
“Maybe they are not single points. Maybe they are related. I happen to think they are. Instead of discreet points and events, I see underlying suspicious coordination. Sectarian violence in Iraq begins to accelerate where it really had not been a major problem.Apparently driven by Shi’ite militias of a cleric tied to Iran. PKK elements (living in an area 10 miles from the Iranian border) suddenly start offenses into Turkey. An Iranian proxy begins a war in Lebanon.”
“Discreet points? I suspect not.”
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None dare call it a conspiracy, eh? I’d ask if you were a John Birch society member, but your support of vastly increasing the power of the Executive branch rules that out.
Maybe it’s time to watch Beautiful Mind again and wonder when random data points are all tied together…or just random data points.
Al Qaeda is a radical Sunni group, but I guess Shiite-run Iran is directing them? C’mon. Saddam kept the Sunnis and Shiites from killing each other by killing anyone who caused problems. The same thing happened in Bosnia – Serbs and Croats kept at bay by Soviet oppresion. Or was the Bosnian civil war sparked by Iran’s Illuminati?
The “Forest” I see is the United States scaring the daylights out of non-allied countries, which is driving those countries to do things to protect themselves from the United States. Thus, North Korea starves its population, but works non-stop on nuclear weapons. I really don’t think these countries hate us or our freedoms, I think they are scared of us. Very scared. Scared countries put up false bravado while madly working in the background to come up with something to fend off the bully. Terrorism works because of the low cost and high yield. When the Islamofascists start attacking Sweden just because they have liberal / pro-western freedoms, then I’ll believe there is a Islamo-Illumininati controlling these events.