Pavlov's Dogs of War

[whatchamacallit]

Color me cynical. Maybe it's too many ginned-up stories of babies dumped out of incubators, or yellowcake, aluminum tubes, and mobile chemical weapon labs, or our strangely selective humanitarian interventions, or everything de facto attributed to Al Qaeda or "Al Qaeda Affiliates", or the endless procession of Al Qaeda number 2s, or... wait... is Al Qaeda even around anymore?... or bogus ISIS horror stories (female genital mutilation, stolen 400 million...). I'm sure a lot of the bad shit happening out there is real, I'm also sure a lot of it is not. Real or not, our propensity for blind faith and retribution borders on compulsive. It seems this nation has been trained to be war-ready. Just sayin.

[arcane1]

1. If you never believe the government when it comes to war, you'll be right more often than wrong.

Sad but true. If ever there was a time for healthy skepticism, it's when lives are at stake.

[whatchamacallit]

2. Indeed. Americans have a nanosecond memory, the attention span of a gnat, and a hair trigger n/t

[MH1]

3. FGM order may have been fake but even ThinkProgress acknowledges ISIS bruatlity ....

http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/07/24/3463683/no-isis-isnt-ordering-female-genital-mutilation-in-iraq/

The traction that this story seemed to quickly gain is easy to understand given ISIS’ previous actions in the territory it controls. Along with reports of civilian executions, massacring Shiites, and enforcing a strict adherence to their interpretation of Islamic law, ISIS has even resurrected the practice of crucifixion in Syria. But for now it appears that female cutting is one atrocity that ISIS has yet to order.

Ok, so no FGM order? Whew. For a while there I thought we were dealing with brutal people. Guess not, seems they are all kind-hearted and stuff after all.

[whatchamacallit]

4. Whoever they are, I have little doubt they are brutal

I have substantial doubts of the veracity of some of the information provided by the US government and media. Dunno why.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. In war, truth is the first casualty. Aeschylus

[whatchamacallit]

6. Always

:/