Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Goldfish


The Asia Times article darkly hints that al-Qaeda will redouble its efforts
to inflame Pakistan and attack NATO supply lines in order to compensate for its
loss of sanctuaries in the tribal areas." The enemy is in the logistical rear of
the US effort, but politically that is difficult to acknowledge. It would be as
if the US offensive against Germany had to be supplied through a country heavily
populated by ardent fascists, but everyone was afraid to mention the possible
complications of that fact.

But what would have been madness in decades past is par for the course
today.

Thinking has become the ultimate crime; demagoguery the ultimate virtue and a
studious avoidance of strategic thought something to be achieved at all costs.
Strategy has become the hostage of the 30-second soundbite. How strange it is
that a society as complex and technological as Western civilization has a
short-term memory only slightly longer than that of a goldfish.
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