Take a moment to ask yourself a question:
What is a normal nation?
Yesterday the President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced that he is sending more American troops to Saudi Arabia, at the request of the Crown Prince, in order to protect their ‘national interests’. In answer to a question about how this fits with his promise to ‘bring the troops home’, the President said that this is different…because the Saudis are paying $1 billion dollars…
Meanwhile, Secretary Pompeo reiterated his three-pronged strategy of ‘maximum pressure’ on Iran: Economic Pressure, Diplomatic Isolation and Military Deterrence…he completed his statement by repeating the mantra: “We just want Iran to behave like a normal nation”
It’s tempting to think that Secretary Pompeo has suffered a massive irony bypass…but you would be doing yourself a disservice to do so. This is an exercise in Orwellian Doublethink…to believe in the lie that you know you’re telling; to forget, and to remember events, exactly as is necessary to fulfil the agenda.
A little poem; my words spoken through the mouth of Mike Pompeo, expressing this doublethink:
The ‘selective amnesia’ that is prevalent in Washington is by no means exclusive to the ‘Shining City on the Hill’. They had some good teachers, including of course, the British. For the past 70 years we have been relegated to playing a supportive role in the game of global empire, but we are never far behind the US. Here’s our cringeworthy Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab:
So I return to my question…with a twist:
What is a normal citizen?
Is it normal to believe everything your government tells you? Is it normal to know that they are lying to you, but to let it wash over you because ‘what can I do?’. Is it normal to put aside the memory of the lies that led to Iraq…the lies that led to Libya…the lies that have been told about Syria…and to think, if you bother to think at all: “They wouldn’t do it again would they?”
Yes they would. They will lie to you until you don’t know what the truth is anymore, and you don’t even care. That…is the goal.
I will never accept that as ‘normal’.