The Middle East–Telling Fact from Twaddle, by Fred Reed

Fred Reed nails it on theburningplatform.com:

Many Americans wonder why the US military has such a dismal record of failure in its wars in Moslem territories. Do we not have the most modern forces in the world? How can a force armed with fighter-bombers, B1s, night-vision goggles, helicopter gunships, heavy armor, and advanced remotely-piloted vehicles lose routinely to lightly-armed goatherds?

Journalistic old-hands in the regions, men who have spent decades following the wars and the complex and shifting alliances, say quietly that the cause is American ignorance of both the lands and the people. Virtually no one in the United States has any notion of the region, they say, though all seem to have strong opinions. Policy thus rests on self-assurance buttressed by factual vacuum.

Journalism being what it is today, reporters cannot say openly that the US, from the White House to the Pentagon to the public, is (as an acquaintance of mine put it inelegantly) “pig ignorant,” and that, with reference to Afghanis, the average citizen “couldn’t find his ass with a flashlight and both hands to grope with.” Coverage is often utter nonsense, they say, but no one notices.

http://www.theburningplatform.com/2015/01/31/the-middle-east/

To continue reading: Telling Fact from Twaddle

As SLL said in “Listen,” (1/26/15), “The US, epitomized by its government, doesn’t listen, it commands and controls, and woe to those who don’t listen and comply.” Nowhere, as the article by Mr. Reed documents, is this phenomenon more apparent, and costly, than in the Middle East.