Well, Winning The Future! I thought the war was over, if not won, weeks ago. But now there is a new front with new antagonists. Though churlish these bad actors had been keeping pretty well to the rules; well enough at least to leave them alone in their primitivism. But now with little warning their longtime reclusive leader comes out swinging, declaring guerrilla war and sabotage. I refer of course to the War on Fox by David Brock and his curious creature Media Matters.

What to make of this lithesome, bespectacled fellow’s explicit, public declaration of war? This was not the Moral Equivalent of War, not a Media War nor any other modifier to the term except of course “guerrilla”, which while it does paint him and his as the plucky ill-armed underdogs, does nothing to make his “war” metaphorical. So is David Brock expecting shipment of a Barrett .50 that he will turn down Park Avenue? This seems unlikely. As Reagan said of protestors declaring “Make love not war”, Mr. Brock seems lightly equipped to do either. So a metaphorical war it is then. And in a snap, as Mr. Brock is among the most passionate architects of the Giffords-inspired era of moderate rhetoric, that eight weeks of cruel discipline is officially over.

But while Brock shows no hesitation in declaring War, Full Stop when what he intends is a bit of petty blackmail, what can we make of this amazing neologism, certainly destined to be the most famous and durable of Obamaisms, “kinetic military action”? First, as any child could tell you, “kinetic” is quite nearly all there is to military action. The only literal meaning this could possibly have is that the President is forthrightly swearing off poison gas, germ weapons, acid attacks, inundations, lasers and pillow smotherings and good for him. Pretty much the rest of man’s arsenal is kinetic. It seems the word has been dragooned into service it never was built for, strictly to provide a phonetic distinguishing characteristic between what has been recently ordered and all the world’s previous experience with military action, primarily that wearing W’s smoldering brand.

Fair enough. Certainly there is reason for him to worry that some folks are forgetting there was an election a couple years back and W did not even participate, that slippery bastard. This might explain why, unlike President Bush, Mr. Obama could not be bothered with anything so piddling as consultation with Congress, much less seeking legislation to back his play. Confusion may reign on this subject since there was, among other figures like Howard Dean, a rather obscure player in the Democratic primaries who made a big deal out of the fact that Bush’s Congressional Authorizations for the Use of Force did not include the word War or Declaration, making all those wars illegal. I wonder whatever became of that idealist? At any rate, while yes, one could truthfully and literally declare that Bush had no Declaration of War for his frenetic military actions, you can’t say they were not authorized. THIS is what unauthorized looks like and the lesson is being learned hard and fast by yesterday’s pseudo-pacifists.

The experience has turned them into pseudo-tough guys, like Brock who not yesterday was as pacifistic as one of these pseudos can get. Now he is all for the trenches. Straight from denouncing Sarah Palin’s incitement of the Giffords shooting by employing cross hair graphics on a map (this was apparently not a gunsite but a bombsite) Brock releases a yawp reminiscent of TR’s promise to skin Woodrow Wilson alive. It’s dizzying. Or it would be if it were serious in any regard. It’s not. The gentleman is as frivolous in his declaration of war as he was feckless in his appeals to peace.

Brock is not a man of his day but a man of the pico-second. There is no there there, no actual person resides behind the blink. No principle or even consistency come into play at all, only a process. In this he does, sadly, reflect our times. The existence of his hated foes from whom he once drew fame and fortune requires attack, defense and counter-attack continually. Roger Ailes’ respiration is an insult to his own so any opportunity for revenge, however vapid or contradictory is grasped with all extremities. Giffords is shot; of course it is Palin’s fault just like Brock’s every canker is caused or at least exacerbated by Glenn Beck. Hannity haunts his dreams, or would if he slept, and Megyn Kelly makes him wonder if he is actually gay. Who could sit still for this assault? He truly sees himself as a soldier facing wave after wave of incoming hostiles, striking blind blows he fears are ineffectual though he could end it all in an instant by changing the channel. This describes the state of mind of more people in this country than one would care to count. Their’s is a precious conceit, a well of bile so potent and toxic it fuels their every word and deed because it explains the accumulating contradictions between what is happening and what should be happening. So we can forgive (or ignore) Brock and his numberless fellow travelers who substitute a denunciation of Fox for any thoughts of their own. Neurotic imperatives drive all that, but why does the expiation of childish resentments earn the title of “war” with this crowd when bombs and bullets do not?

It’s simple really. The mind typified by Brock doesn’t disbelieve in the concept of “enemy” as they would often claim, rather they firmly believe that their true enemies, the one splinter of humanity that is pure evil, without conscience or even a capacity for improvement is that gaggle of toothless cretins Fox finds in its key demographic. Sure, some misguided and mistreated fellows might be doing a bit of shooting and looting but they’re just reacting to O’Reilly’s appearance on Stewart! All conflict can be traced to these hellish transmissions. Stop them and you stop everything else so only the war on Fox is a real war. Everything else is misunderstanding. Both infantile and sophisticated, the legions who indulge this stupidity sit high in government, business and of course media.

This is why Libya, the Mini-me of Bush’s GWOT, is the clarifier; the long overdue disciplinarian. Not even an Olympic-level of self-deception could indict Fox, Bush or anyone other than Obama for American involvement in what is happening in Libya whatever term is applied. Any argument one could make for Libya goes more powerfully and consistently for our existing battlefields. Any fresh or tired argument against Bush’s wars make a shambles of Obama’s kinetics. The hilarious gyrations involved in saying otherwise have twisted the heads from our public intellectuals of the Left but don’t worry. It hasn’t disturbed their hair or makeup and they will be back, good as new, right after this commercial message.

 

 

Tweet  Print This Post

Tags: terror & war, trusted media & news // Add Comment »