tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5737853305204847838.post7877045790802524880..comments2023-11-20T05:27:02.037+00:00Comments on GrogNews: Some Hard Truths Glossed Over in our VocabularyBranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07482746543829626805noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5737853305204847838.post-19768075814686114152013-08-12T18:29:00.890+01:002013-08-12T18:29:00.890+01:00Didn't read the longer article yet but I will ...Didn't read the longer article yet but I will Rx to your questions. (well, question, because yes, the kabuki word-dance will continue and yes, a serious and sober conversation with the American public is not on the cards, no matter how much they might appreciate a sincere effort at having one.)<br /><br />People seemed to be just fine in the early 1960s with the notion of the new Special Forces, working to overthrow foreign governments because, well, freedom. <br /><br />If I were a sociologist I would want to write about the progress of the jut-jawed, clean-cut Green Beret through the colon of American popular culture... from Green Beret playsets and comic books to Rambo the misfit and back again. Mercifully, I don't have the academic background for it.<br /><br />Anyway, back in the day people seemed fine with it because the governments worked against were also popularly seen as enemies of the United States, if not of humanity (the two tend to get confused sometimes). <br /><br />Or, if you could make it stick that the government was acting as a proxy of the Evil Empire, it would also mostly be OK - witness the Contra effort in Nicaragua (from beginning to end, most Americans were buffaloed into accepting that Sandinistas were toothy demon-spawn from Moscow, only two days' drive from Texas! and therefore it was worth supporting those goons) or Angola (yes, it was complicated, but when the Reagan government and media fellow-travellers talked about UNITA at all, it was to portray Jonas Savimbi as some kind of latter-day Jefferson stuck out in the karoo).<br /><br />So, I would say that if you got any reaction from the majority of the American public at all, it woudl have to depend on the target government selected - I suppose not many folks would be upset if it emerged that SOCOM had been covertly aiding and abetting resistance against the DPRK government. But these days the preferred reaction is no reaction, it seems.Brianhttp://brtrain.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com