Phi Beta Iota: Bottom line: USA/NATO operating a massive Information Operations (IO) campaign while introducing ground forces not authorized by Congress, and committing what we consider to be mass atrocities (war crimes) in the deliberative destruction of the capital city and other infrastructure targets across the country.
“Everything you see from here is a big lie. People have got to bear this in mind. It's all fake. There's a fake, Libyan town that's been built in Qatar, and they can stage a Hollywood-style massacre in such a place, and say, ‘Now, it's enough, Gaddafi has gone too far.”
As someone who once took an oath in the military to protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, I have to wonder why a group that preaches taking over the government using “spiritual warfare” isn't a domestic enemy. Where is the line between freedom of religious expression and sedition?
An emerging Christian movement that seeks to take dominion over politics, business and culture in preparation for the end times and the return of Jesus, is becoming more of a presence in American politics. The leaders are considered apostles and prophets, gifted by God for this role.
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Tabachnick says the movement currently works with a variety of politicians and has a presence in all 50 states. It also has very strong opinions about the direction it wants the country to take. For the past several years, she says, the NAR has run a campaign to reclaim what it calls the “seven mountains of culture” from demonic influence. The “mountains” are arts and entertainment; business; family; government; media; religion; and education.
“They teach quite literally that these ‘mountains' have fallen under the control of demonic influences in society,” says Tabachnick. “And therefore, they must reclaim them for God in order to bring about the kingdom of God on Earth. … The apostles teach what's called ‘strategic level spiritual warfare' [because they believe that the] reason why there is sin and corruption and poverty on the Earth is because the Earth is controlled by a hierarchy of demons under the authority of Satan. So they teach not just evangelizing souls one by one, as we're accustomed to hearing about. They teach that they will go into a geographic region or a people group and conduct spiritual-warfare activities in order to remove the demons from the entire population. This is what they're doing that's quite fundamentally different than other evangelical groups.”
Reasoning by analogy is powerful, but dangerous for of thinking. Einstein, for example, showed how reasoning by analogy can unleash stunning insights , but only when properly tempered by critical observation, testing, and systematic analysis, can analogical insights lead to brilliant syntheses that literally change our view of reality.
But that benefit comes with a heavy price, because this kind of reasoning is also a very dangerous way to think. Analogies can capture the imagination and thereby bias the Orientation of less disciplined thinkers and decision makers to distort and twist their Observations into a vision of reality the Observer/Decision Maker wants to see. In so doing, the distorted Orientation takes decision maker off the cliff by disconnecting his Actions from the real world. And … for every Einstein with a highly disciplined Observation – Orientation – Decision Action loop, there are thousands of crackpots, nutcases, and charlatans trying to sell their visions of “what is” to sell their pre-concieved views of appropriate decisions and actions of action.
In the below essay, Richard Falk offers a good example of reasoning by analogy done properly. He carefully crafts and explains a limited set of parallels between the January 1968 Tet Offensive in Viet Nam to Obama's dilemma in Afghanistan. CS
The US expectation that the Taliban would learn to live with the American occupation in their lust for power in Kabul is far-fetched and can only be seen as wishful thinking.
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Equally, the ‘hidden agenda’ of the US invasion of Afghanistan can no longer be disowned. Quite obviously, the US intends to plunge into the ‘great game’ in Central Asia.
Phi Beta Iota: This is absolutely worth a complete read. The US is, as the author suggests, delusional in thinking the Taliban is going to put up with a US presence beyond this winter. The US has sentenced Karzai to death, and may well lose another 1,000 troops to body bags before the public has its “Tet Offensive” wake-up. There is nothing in Central Asia worth blood, spirit, and treasure–what is there is vastly over-stated in relation to what could be gained by refocusing on rebuilding America from inside out. This is a study in corruption across the legislative and executive branches of the US Government.
This PressTV bit with me was recorded at 2:30 pm New York time yesterday (22 Aug 2011). At that time, I questioned the veracity of the claimed capture of Gadaffi's sons and of rebel control of the city of Tripoli. It turns out I was right.
No, I don't have a crystal ball – just good contacts on the ground who don't lie or hold their tongues when they see horrible wrong being done. NATO – that's Obama to the apologists – has done everything to keep this information from you, but the truth will out!
Phi Beta Iota: US Information Operations (IO) includes Pyschological Operations (PSYOP, now under a new name, same mindset, which is to deceive rather than to promulgate the truth). It has improved since its signal success in sending Iraqi troops home rather than having to deal with their surrender. What we are seeing in relation to Libya, apart from the impeachable crimes of pilots, generals, Congress, and the White House, is a major IO/PSYOP campaign that is driven by Wall Street and Big Oil, not by the public interest. Interestingly, this is also the first time that the truth is being crowd-sourced in a moderately effective manner, suggesting that in the future any IO/PSYOP campaign that is less than truthful will be outed in quick time.
Phi Beta Iota: The respective press–those trapped in a hotel in Tripoli and those embedded with the rebels–are seeing only what they are allowed to see. Apart from Patrick Meier, Arno Reuser and a few others, no one is actually putting together “ground truth” based on widely scatted Twitter and other forms of communication. The West sees Libya as oil, water, and gold. The Africa Union has failed to see the urgency of protecting its interest in all three.
