The Art of War as the Art of Bullshit

Dear George,

I hope you appreciate all your neocon minions are doing for you. Without them, America could easily sink into a quagmire of mind-numbing peace. Thanks to them, this will never happen.

Your neocons may not be able to think straight, but by God, they can sure manufacture a threat where none exists, and that is what is important if we are to keep our economy from tanking altogether.

The military-industrial-homeland security bubble is the only one that is still inflated. A constant stream of threats, wars and preparations for war, missile gaps, and a dystopian imagination is the air that is keeps it inflated. Should that bubble pop, we would see the return of the Great Depression that never really ended; it was simply moved to the back burner by World War II, the War on Terror and your Eternal War of the Empty Policy.

Now your neocons are moving us towards an attack on Iran with their Goebbelian repetition of the mantra, “Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.”

Distort, distort, distort: that’s how we keep our economy healthy, George. All wars float on a sea of bullshit. It is your ability to bullshit that makes you one of the greatest military leaders of the twenty-first century.

Listen to what the corporate employees in our Senate have to say in SRES 580 IS that calls for a naval blockade of Iran:

Whereas, the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that the Government of Iran has engaged in such covert nuclear activities as the illicit importation of uranium hexafluoride, the construction of a uranium enrichment facility, experimentation with plutonium, the importation of centrifuge technology and the construction of centrifuges, and the importation of design to convert highly enriched uranium gas into a metal and to shape it into the core of a nuclear weapon as significant additional covert nuclear activities;


Sounds scary as hell, doesn’t it.

The beauty is that it’s a complete fabrication.

It is fortunate that facts are relegated to obscure corners of the net. For example, one writer points out, “These narratives refer to the IAEA’s reports on Iran, yet turn a blind eye to those reports’ explicit references to Iran’s low-enriched uranium.” This is uranium enriched up to 4%, which is allowed by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). Weapon-grade uranium must be enriched to 90% or better.

Commenting on one article that claimed that Iran has produced 500 pounds of low-enriched uranium, which is one-third of what is required for Iran’s first nuclear bomb, the writer says:

[It] is factually incorrect to assume that Iran’s low-enriched uranium is “one-third” what is required for a nuclear bomb. First, only through extensive and a painstakingly difficult technological process of re-processing and re-enriching uranium to substantially higher levels (90% or more), can Iran’s enriched uranium be utilized for manufacturing bombs.

Second, with the IAEA’s robust inspection of Iran’s enrichment facilities, any such diversion to “weapon-grade” enrichment would be instantly detected, simply because significant modifications, re-assembling and re-configuration of the cascades of centrifuges would be necessary and that could not possibility evade the IAEA’s watchful eyes.

That’s the truth, George, but who gives a shit? Truth never started a war, which is why it is such a pariah in the nuclearized security state.

I have this beautiful vision that gives me the incentive to get up in the morning. The October surprise will be an attack on Iran. Iran will retaliate and oil will spike to $400 a barrel. Iran’s anti-ship to air missiles, which can travel at speeds somewhere between Mach 3 and Mach 2.2, will destroy our carrier task forces in the Persian Gulf. You declare a national emergency and cancel the November elections since unity is called for in a time of war, and you cannot allow our resolve to be weakened by a divisive election.

You tell us that sacrifice is called for as you cancel Social Security and Medicare, thus introducing America to the bracing life of patriotic impoverishment.

God, how I love ruin! I spent just thinking about it.

Your admirer,
Belacqua Jones