Russian Gambit and Reality's Rout: Chris Floyd

[teryang]

Cold Irons Bound
The Russian Gambit and Reality's Rout
By CHRIS FLOYD

http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd06262004.html

<The poverty of any given political discourse can be measured by how far its fundamental terms depart from reality. Putin's heavy-handed intervention – drawing from the deep, poisoned well of the "black ops" world, chasing ghosts in a hall of mirrors – is entirely representative of our famished discourse today. Like Plato's cave-dwellers, we can only sit in the dark, talking trash about the shadows on the wall. This is especially true for the "debates" over the war in Iraq, particularly its origins, for they are founded upon the most insubstantial, unmoored fantasy imaginable – namely, that the American-led war against Iraq began when George W. Bush launched his ravaging blitzkrieg in March 2003.

In reality, the only genuine question up for debate in the months before that fateful plunge was not, "Should we now go to war with Iraq?" but rather, "Should we now escalate our war against Iraq?" This could be further refined as: "Should we now add ground forces to our on-going, 12-year air war against Iraq?" or "Should we now convert our murderous economic war against Iraq into an open takeover of the Iraqi economy?" or "Should we now upgrade our long-running covert terrorism against Iraq into outright conquest?">

http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd06262004.html

[bemildred]

1. Kick for a good rant. nt