(Note to literalists: the Watched column presently contains only a smattering of 'warblogs' because the facilitator of the template-change--Dr. Menlo--is not very familiar with them, and will be adding more as they are sent to him. Also, this blog may contain areas of allusion, satire, subtext, context and possibly even a dash of the surreal: wannabe lit-crits beware.)
Control
[Watch this space for: Pentagon and Petroleum, The Media is only as Liberal as the Corporations Who Own Them, Wash Down With, and Recalcify]
WARBLOGGER WATCH
Sunday, March 23, 2003
What? You have a life and yet you yearn to be seduced by the Glenn Reynolds Dark Side? Well fear no more for here is the shortened version of the March 22 Instapundit (Where we use the very popular Reynolds Rules(!).)
FIRST, AN OVERVIEW OF THE MARCH 22ND DISTORTIONS: I guess the primary theme that gets repeated over and over today is how well the war is going. Of course, the war has just started and praising its wonderful progress is probably not unlike declaring "Our marriage works" after the first hour of the first date. It's a little early. You should take Virginia Postrel's tack and just watch for awhile. My Ministry of Truth award for his most vile and deceptive post would have to be this one, or: Dynamic Duo: 12. I'm Proud To Be An American Where At Least I Know I'm Free (New!) and probably: 16. Pish Posh! Only My Version of Reality Can Be True!. This is where he takes Salam Pax's very wise quote about the preponderant use of American force to get its way and twists accordingly. The quote is this:
"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do."
Glenn then comments and says:
"But having officers who don't abscond with their troops' pay is, in fact, one example of the superiority of Western ideas, and it's one that translates rather directly into superiority where organized violence is concerned. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Dictatorships like Saddam's -- which based on history and prevalence might be regarded as the "natural" form of human governance -- turn out to be lousy at war. Democracies embodying Western ideas turn out to be a lot better. That's not a coincidence, however much non-Westerners might wish to believe that it is."
I mean, does Glenn know how silly this statement is? Remember, the United States upends democracies in countries all the time. Some of us remember Chile, and Iran, or even to make it more recent, Venezuela. In point of fact, we installed Saddam probably at the expense of some struggling democratic process that we didn't like much. He makes it sound like the dictatorships sprung out of thin air, magically. I mean, it's like Glenn shoots you with one of his many guns and faults you for bleeding so much. "That's not how I'd do it," Glenn would say as he struts over your blood deprived bod. "It's your non Western values or something, affects how you bleed..." Bizarre.
Clearly, the US doesn't like democracies. That whole Turkey vote is the kind of thing that just gnaws at the oil-drenched Western establishment. I would go further to say that we don't like democracy here. And now, because of the war on the terror and the horrific Federalist society nature of the new courts the Power Elite may see their dreams for America fully realized. A place where, finally, you have a decent pretext for killing your enemies. That is, afterall, how things are handled in our client states. That's what Coke does. They would love to kill union organizers here. You just have to tar the left as being Anti-American and pro terrorist. I guess we can thank Glenn and his ilk for setting the mood. Anyway, there's more innuendo and subterfuge but they'll be other days. Here's the short list.
12. I'm Proud To Be An American (New!)
13. Why Do You Hate America or: Here's Who We Should Hate (New!) and/or Overlook When They're Sent Away to the Internment Camps (New!) and
15. International Media Doesn't Love America!
16. Pish Posh! Only My Version of Reality Can Be True!
17. "Ya know, and I say this offhandedly, but people who hate Israel probably hate the US, it's like we're the same country with the same interests...offhandedly I say this.."
