From Nibras Kazimi, writing at his blog, Talisman Gate بـاب الطلــسم (What would a McCain presidency mean for the Middle East?):
OK, so I'm not the only person who wonders who some of these folks work for. This is not a case of dressing for your next job. Having multitudes of State Department employees showing up to work in a well tailored Bedouin outfit (and burnoose) might give the game away. People do "profile," which says bad things about people (face it, they're all swine) but not about the person being profiled (we've all be victims of this, and we are not swine -- we are people). Still, why be -- what's the word? -- obvious.
So rather than dress for the next job, they simply adopt the policies of their next job.
So, OK. The House of Saud has penetrated deep into The House of Peace. But the House of War? How many T.E. Lawrence wannabes has the Pentagon brought up? And the CIA? Well, if the Secret Plumbing that connects all our "Houses" leaks to the Washington Post (to applause), why not gush to the House of Saud? They probably have their own high pressure hose.
It should be noted that there is a widely accepted and legal form of corruption at play: be nice to the Saudis while you’re at public office, and you shall be guaranteed a nice fat retirement bonus as a lobbyist, consultant, or ‘think-tank-er’. Public servants, whether they be diplomats or spooks, don’t make much money while they are on the government’s dole, but if they keep their heads down and go along with what the bureaucratic mandarins have mandated, then they too can benefit from Saudi or any other petrodollar largesse.
These bureaucracies, as well as their ‘retired’ auxiliaries, bitterly pushed back against President Bush’s limited post-911 reforms, and they are seemingly rooting for Obama’s camp to win, reading Senator Barack Obama as the candidate of less change, and more importantly, the candidate of less experience at changing things.
OK, so I'm not the only person who wonders who some of these folks work for. This is not a case of dressing for your next job. Having multitudes of State Department employees showing up to work in a well tailored Bedouin outfit (and burnoose) might give the game away. People do "profile," which says bad things about people (face it, they're all swine) but not about the person being profiled (we've all be victims of this, and we are not swine -- we are people). Still, why be -- what's the word? -- obvious.
So rather than dress for the next job, they simply adopt the policies of their next job.
So, OK. The House of Saud has penetrated deep into The House of Peace. But the House of War? How many T.E. Lawrence wannabes has the Pentagon brought up? And the CIA? Well, if the Secret Plumbing that connects all our "Houses" leaks to the Washington Post (to applause), why not gush to the House of Saud? They probably have their own high pressure hose.
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