6 August 2008

It's kind of amusing how we latch on to the words of diplomats and their translation by the media; even though we don't believe politicians (diplomats) or the media, we swallow what they say, hook line and sinker.  Why amusing?  Because they know this and use it against us.

Perhaps the most effective, because the least responsible, are the terrorists who play the media (especially al Jazeera) like a violin.  They babble, knowing we will eat it up.  So Amadinajad has learned to do the same.  The price of oil is dropping due to reduced demand, because of increases in price of gas at the pump - which is the way things work - and the Iranian government doesn't like that, so they instruct their military to bellow (Arabs and their Islamic immitators love to bellow threats that substitute for effective action) that they may close off the Arabian Gulf (oops, sorry, it has been renamed the Persian Gulf - or maybe it's the other way around) to shipping (40% of commercially traded oil must pass through the Straight of Hormuz).   Oh woe, summon the speculators and bid up oil futures; the world is coming to an end.   Are they going to do that - close off the gulf?  Not likely.  Will it drive prices back up?  Likely.  Motive?  They play us like a violin.

The pols - and their ambassadors - talk, the media reports, we listen, and react like puppets.  Cute.  It's a game, you know, a serious game, but a game nonetheless.  Why do we react?  Greed, self interest, fear - if we didn't react and they actually did what they said they would do, we would be soooo angry:  why didn't you do something? 

That's the game, and we can thank the ubiquity of modern communications for its effectiveness.  It is, after all, the new propaganda and it works soooo well.