We recall how the narratives went immediately into wishful fantasyland when "quagmire" was declared in Afghanistan -- it's brutal winter unbeatable -- oh, right about this time 4 years ago.
That is, within about 3 weeks of 9/11.
Other examples abound in recent history.
The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, for example. Who saw that coming?
The stock market is like that too: valuations can get out of whack with reality, to either side, for quite some time.
Then, there's a sudden "readjustment."
And so it will be geopolitically.
Wretchard opines, in his own comment section,
The fight in Ramadi is being treated like the Hamas accident: in a most distorted way. The ongoing fight is actually part of an offensive by the US, but it is being portrayed as yet another insurgent victory. 'The number of US dead now passes ...'.Precisely because it seems so unlikely, I am going to predict that history will mark W as one of our most significant Presidents. Given the unprecedented degree of opposition, it's remarkable what's been accomplished in such a short time.
Because most news readers don't have the time to pore over details, if they are given a framework of belief any new fact will be slotted into it. The genius of the Left which has not been successfully countered by the conservatives is that they've created a narrative: there are a lot of innocent American boys wandering around aimlessly in Iraq and they are being picked off one by one. Whenever a soldier or marine dies, the datum gets fitted into this false but simple framework.
The DOD, through its briefings, tries to give the seemingly shapeless garment of events some form, but its narrative format is often long, filled with detail, insider terms, etc and presumes in the reader a kind of memory, which the reader often lacks, as those busy earning a living often do. For the million, a simple lie works far better than the complex truth.
The irony is that the Press was once viewed as society's bulwark against demagoguery, though demagoguery is by definition a form of yellow press.
...
What tempts every writer with a readership is the lure of substituting his own 'simple' narrative for the 'false' narrative of the demagogue. One fiction is opposed with another, everyone entertained but none the wiser. Because things ebb and flow, sometimes the US side takes a hit, sometimes it cleans up. It takes a certain self confidence to acknowledge an enemy success. The truth will never be a simple story, though there is simplicity in it.
That's why these formulaic Leftist narratives are so astounding. You would expect an intelligent Leftist to recognize that the US has to be winning a certain percentage of the time, if only out of sheer luck. Yet it's a mark of how mesmerizing the Big Lie is, excuse me, 'speaking truth to power', that people can go on swallowing one lie after the other simply because it suits their book and makes them feel better. True believers are always blindsided by outcomes. Communism was inevitable until it became history seemingly overnight. The EU was going to sweep all before it up to the moment when it vanished like a puff of smoke. The insurgency will be invincible until the instant it all comes crashing down.
He's changing the world.
And it needed to be changed.
Here's a quick rundown of W's Axis of Evil World Tour:
Afghanistan -- Freed. Taliban routed. Free elections held.That's really an amazing set of accomplishments.
Pakistan -- Flipped. Nuclear black market shut down.
Central Asia -- Infiltrated. New US bases in the 'stans a strategic coup.
Iraq -- Toppled. Perhaps the center of rippling change in the Arab world. Looming threats decisively ended.
Libya -- Capitulated. Abandoned secret nuclear and chemical programs out of fear.
Lebanon -- Freed. Syrian imperialists forced out after decades.
Egypt -- Stirring. Talk of freer government unavoidable.
United Nations -- Exposed. Told to reform, or else.
Europe -- Stirring. Starting to realize it has a big problem. May yet get their house in order.
PLA -- Outmaneuvered. Civil war likely. Gaza to become free-fire zone.
North Korea -- Contained. Agreed in principle to disarm via multilateral diplomacy, backed by a big stick.
And done with unbelievably low human cost, by any historical measure.
But wait, there's more!
Coming Soon:
Syria -- Doomed.As Wretchard again puts it,
Saudi Arabia -- Desperate. Its double game is getting much harder.
Iran -- Surrounded. Time is running out, and W holds more cards.
OBL and friends -- Isolated. Like characters in cheap horror movies, could die suddenly at any time.
A lot of societies are living on borrowed time -- China, with its suicidal one-child demographics, Europe which is already there, the Islamic world with its Death Wish Cults, the Russian Republic of Vodka, and Africa, nobody forget Africa -- and all of these merry tunes are going to stop playing.Which brings me to my last point.
The US President doesn't have the power to alter history on this scale. Nor does the Left, for all its vanity, have any power to remake history on the scale it aspires to. The story of the world has a lot of stability. China, India, Egypt -- even Israel, and maybe America -- they all go on. But we don't. Our little existences are not similarly guaranteed. My job is to ensure that I survive, along with my family, for the next 30 years.
You might disgree, but I think the Jihadis are beaten already simply because the last four years has brought warning of them to every corner of the world. The ancient nations, the eternal bedrock of humanity, are wise to them now. Perhaps the greatest threat to the world wasn't Islam at all, but the soporific postmodern correctness that sapped the immune system of the world so badly that second rate bugs like Osama actually had a chance of becoming players. Osama was proof of how senile the West had become and the West nearly spread that senility around on the strength of its immense prestige.
About that net-enabled warning?
There's now another faction in play:
The New Crusaders -- Awakened.
