The Power of Nightmares: Fool me twice, shame on me.

[tongodeon]

I'm watching more of "The Power of Nightmares" and made another comparison that blew my mind. In the 60s Kissinger signed treaties limiting production of weapons of mass destruction, producing an era of detente. As SecDef of the Ford administration, Donald Rumsfeld felt that american military dominance would be good for the world, but he knew he

Comments

[tritone]

There was a salon.com article recently (free version here) that's focused more on Cheney, but talks about some of the same history-repeating-itself.

Since I'm just starting to read "Chain of Command", I thought it was amusing that back in '75, Cheney was apoplectic over a Seymour Hersh article about a secret CIA operation (though compared to today's events, it seems positively benign--trying to recover a sunken Soviet submarine).

Everything old is new again...

[tongodeon]

This is a bizarro conspiracy theory of which I am unaware.

[tongodeon]

Unlike Iraq the Russians did have *some* WMDs, not only nuclear warheads but chemical and biological. But Rumsfeld's Team B, like Rumsfeld's Office of Special Plans, greatly exaggerated the threat including distorting discredited intelligence to make a public case for something which was not true and promote a military response to their fabrications.

[tongodeon]

Actually, I think you're misunderstanding what the CIA determined vs. what Team B decided. The CIA did confirm that Russia had nuclear weapons, obviously. Team B went further. Dispite the relative peace that existed after SALT 1 and the Detente, Richard Pipes of Team B claimed to be an expert on "the soviet mindset" and to know that they "planned to attack and conquer America

[matrushkaka]

The Cold War hit a little close to home for me due to my Russian blood. I got called a "red Commie" and beaten up/spit on. I can only imagine how Muslim or Arab-descended kids must feel in American schools, or heck, anyone with a turban, since most people don't know the difference, sadly.

[ikkyu2]

Yeah, it reminds me of that Tom Clancy novel.