Sobering Thought of the Day - See No Evil
I just got the book See No Evil from the library and plowed through it.
If you don't know, it's the book that inspired the film Syriana, though they differ in a bazillion ways.
The first half of the book is basically about how the CIA has been so gutted and overcome by political correctness that they're really not so into the whole spying thing anymore. And without, there's no info and without that, no intelligence and that's how things like 9/11.
But it's the second half of the book that really should scare the bejeesus out of you. The author, ex-CIA dude Robert Baer first talks about the State Department totally screwed a group of Kurds in 1995 who had a real chance to overthrow Saddam Hussein. At the last minute the NSC pulled their support and so the coup of March 4 simply became a non-event.
Then you get the meat of the Syriana stuff. It's all about Big Oil and how riddiculously entertwined governments, corporations and just about everyone else are in this thing. If you haven't seen Syriana, it's basically the same deal. If, everytime you pay for your gas, you blame the Arabs, you're missing the point. It's so inscestous, such a large scale circle jerk, that even the people who think they're running the show can't possibly have any clue what's going on.
The upshot? We drive cars. Those cars use oil. The oil is Over There....we're fucked and will be for a long time. Get used to it and enjoy in the meantime.
Syriana is a bit of a dense, challenging movie but if you want to take any interest in whatsoever in the things that actually make the world tick while you're not watching, rent it when it comes out and/or read See No Evil. Or just give up. Yeah, that's probably easiest.
If you don't know, it's the book that inspired the film Syriana, though they differ in a bazillion ways.
The first half of the book is basically about how the CIA has been so gutted and overcome by political correctness that they're really not so into the whole spying thing anymore. And without, there's no info and without that, no intelligence and that's how things like 9/11.
But it's the second half of the book that really should scare the bejeesus out of you. The author, ex-CIA dude Robert Baer first talks about the State Department totally screwed a group of Kurds in 1995 who had a real chance to overthrow Saddam Hussein. At the last minute the NSC pulled their support and so the coup of March 4 simply became a non-event.
Then you get the meat of the Syriana stuff. It's all about Big Oil and how riddiculously entertwined governments, corporations and just about everyone else are in this thing. If you haven't seen Syriana, it's basically the same deal. If, everytime you pay for your gas, you blame the Arabs, you're missing the point. It's so inscestous, such a large scale circle jerk, that even the people who think they're running the show can't possibly have any clue what's going on.
The upshot? We drive cars. Those cars use oil. The oil is Over There....we're fucked and will be for a long time. Get used to it and enjoy in the meantime.
Syriana is a bit of a dense, challenging movie but if you want to take any interest in whatsoever in the things that actually make the world tick while you're not watching, rent it when it comes out and/or read See No Evil. Or just give up. Yeah, that's probably easiest.
posted by Heavy Early at 4:30 PM
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