CB re: <Ms. Glaspie is wearing no makeup, no jewelry, her hair is not styled, she appears to be wearing a sweatshirt, her voice is whiny, and her affect is very flat. In short, in the context of her situation (testimony to the House of Representatives) she appears to be suffering from some kind of affective disorder, perhaps depression. Which causes me to wonder about her suitability for her post to begin with. >
My brother way back in 1991 pointed out that Saddam was conned into attacking Kuwait. Ambassadors of the USA don't make it up as they go along. They have phones, faxes and get marching orders from HQ.
The USA has been adventuring in the middle east for decades. Everyone knows that if the USA gives green lights, it means something. Do you recall Henry Kissinger giving green lights to Indonesia over East Timor [now being tidied up by the UN decades and umpty thousand East Timorese corpses later]? If the ambassador to China says that the USA isn't going to take a position in Asian affairs, don't you think there might be more pressure on Taiwan. If the ambassador to Japan gave the go ahead to the Japanese Greater Co-Prosperity Sphere, instead of sanctions and intervention which led the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbour, it's obvious that Japan wouldn't have bombed Pearl Harbour and would have continued their expansion across Asia, including right down to NZ.
As it happens, they have got NZ anyway, but by chequebook invasion, which is much more fun [for non-sadists], effective and profitable. Our son has learned Japanese and runs a snowboard tours business for Japanese. They have adopted the USA method of invasion. Mine too! I'm busily colonizing the USA and Japan both - though I only have a Tonka Truck sized invasion force.
I was a bit puzzled as to why the USA would want Saddam to attack Kuwait. The answer came when Saddam said "If I withdraw, will you remove the sanctions". I thought silly boy, of course they will. The purpose of the sanctions was to force compliance with the will of We the Sheeple which is democratically [giggle] expressed through our institution the UN.
Well, silly me explained my brother. They aren't going to take sanctions off. He laboriously explained to me that the price of oil has got to be kept up to maintain the profits of high cost producers in the North Sea, Alaska, and USA. There have been umpty billion in profits thanks to keeping supplies reduced and Iraqi oil off the market.
As with most things in the human realm, there aren't single variables which drive things, but when one looks around the scene and sees things all falling into place for a certain course of action, that's the one that's taken.
If keeping sanctions on had ruined USA oil companies, you can be sure that sanctions wouldn't have been the order of the day.
Now, on the battle of the sexes, which is much more fun [and longer running], I was amused to see an Oprah Winfrey programme about the many ethnicities in America. There were a bunch of women from the various divisions, all preening about their wonderful culture and ethnicity. It was so funny though Americans wouldn't see it, because they were all clones of each other.
They had the big hair, the jewelry, the accent, the speech mannerisms, demeanour, subjects of conversation and so on. Each would have been utterly out of place in their wonderful ethnic origins back in the village from which their grandmothers arrived.
I can imagine you whooping around the teepee, or wigwam, expressing your wonderful aboriginal culture. How out of place would you feel? Little Hiawatha goes to Washington.
No makeup, no jewelry, flat hair, wearing what appeared to be a sweatshirt with a high-pitched whiny voice and flat affect. No makeup? Well, giggle. Where were you when the women's revolution came through town? No jewelry. Hahaha!! Unstylie hair - guilty of failing to adopt the Oprah Way. I couldn't get the video to load, so don't know about the sweatshirt [if she'd been fired and otherwise abused, I'm not surprised she affected some 'inappropriate' dress - a guy I know went to court in his pyjamas a few decades ago in dispute over military service I think it was]. High-pitched voice? Some women do suffer from lack of masculine 'dropped voice' at puberty. Our PM, Helen Clark is a good bloke with a well-dropped voice. I consider content a good idea to consider rather than voice. Stephen Hawking has got a hopeless voice too. Guilty as charged!!
Do jurors in the USA count the trinkets, check the hair, makeup and clothes and declare guilt for those falling short? I'm sure they do. A good pair of tits is good evidence of innocence too. Judges might even fall for that one. They should be covered sufficiently to convey modesty, but exposed sufficiently to induce drool.
I don't know specifically about April Glaspie and maybe I'd see a hopeless, arrogant but ignorant women's libber running her own assertive and independent disastrous show in Iraq without HQ approval. I'm just commenting on the jewelry, hair, makeup angle.
So far, the facts seem to me to bear out the idea that Saddam was duped [his personality wasn't news to HQ who could reasonably predict his actions]. Sanctions were kept on for decades and centuries and millennia [okay, that's being cute, but it was a long time]. Oil profits have been great! USA buddies like Saudi Arabia have kept supply constrained while maintaining their own profits. Unfortunately, some of those profits have gone towards Jihad and Twin Tower destruction. There has been a live fire test ground for USA military equipment [which has to be an important issue in maintaining military preparedness].
Not to mention, King George II is king.
I'm not saying that I disagree with what's happened. I'm in favour of ditching Saddam and Colonization of Iraq and then revamping of the UN to a sensible show and tossing Iraq to the New World Order to keep on the rails. King George II has more or less done what I want. Better than Clinton, who allowed a bombing of the Chinese embassy without any provocation that I could see.
Just observing and looking for meaning behind the facts.
Back on April, depression is something people suffer. It's not surprising if she did subsequent to her adventures in Iraq. That was perhaps after the event and not a readily identifiable risk before the event. She probably showed up [as depressives I know seem to be] as fairly driven people who want so much to succeed that they get into a frustration loop even if things are apparently going pretty well from an outsider's point of view. Anyway I'm not a pyschoanalyst so it's only conjecture, but she could well have been depressed and that might have been the first time in her life [in front of the House of Representatives].
Picking on women for lack of makeup, jewelry etc is not good form in these non-sexist times. Which is not to say I'm not sexist. Heck, I am. Having sheilas in Augusta Golf Club is absurd. There probably aren't women's tees for a start and they'd have to play like real men, from the long tees. Then, there's the urinal problem. Not to mention having girls in a boy's tree hut is a bit weird you know.
Good grief, it's as bad as having girls in the army. They'd shut their eyes and say "bang" when they didn't pull the trigger. Imagine them having to pee. Taking off all that heavy clothing and squatting down in a Baghdad street while the Republican Guard's firing at them. Real blokes pee over the wall without moving from their positions.
Mqurice |
