deep state blob

It would appear that this article is not paywalled (for the day, Apparently). It's about the blob or the deep state actors who are behind the forever war. Important stuff when you have to think about how Biden, though he did the most popular thing, saw his polls drop to their lowest yet (and not as bad, but getting to Trump numbers...). Why? That blob basically in control of the entire media without a single attempt to show an opposing voice. So it goes. 
This guy was apparently in the midst of the blob, honing arguments for more war always. And rubbing elbows with the likes of Friedman. Makes sense, as it's as good a gig as any.

What I didn't do was actually go to Iraq or Afghanistan. Instead, I ate free buffet lunches, collected business cards, and mainlined off-the-record propaganda that both of America's long-running wars were worthy undertakings, steered by capable hands.

Well, he was part of the blob. 

I didn't know it at the time, but I was being absorbed into what Ben Rhodes, Obama's speechwriter and longtime policy advisor, called the "Blob," the amorphous pro-war Washington establishment that Obama was supposed to oppose. In the Blob's view, it's the role of the Blob, not the voters or even the White House, to decide when America goes to war.

And like many forms of propaganda nowadays, it's certainly smarter than the 20th century authoritarian kind:

 Into one end of the Blob goes the money — gifts from corporations, wealthy individuals, and, in some cases, foreign governments. Out the other end comes white papers, books, op-ed articles, salaries, fellowships, and panel discussions. The content of the output varies widely, and contains occasional notes of disagreement, which is what makes it so much more slippery and effective than the classical authoritarian propaganda of the 20th century, which was intended to awe and manipulate crowds by playing to their basest emotions.

Anyhow, we all know about the revolving doors of our government. Essentially a quiet way to do bribery (and a more classy, long term one too, I suppose). 

At that same conference, Gen. Joseph Dunford, then the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave a public talk to a large gathering. In 2019, when he retired, he joined Lockheed Martin's board.

And yes, they do make sure that the viewpoints presented are never too far off spectrum:

Not much airtime is given to dissent from what's often called "the rules-based order" or "the liberal international order." These terms sound technical and boring and unobjectionable; perhaps that is by design. In plain English, "rules-based order" has effectively come to mean "war is good." The foreign-policy establishment is ideologically committed to the faith-based proposition that America can use force against a country thousands of miles away and, if not remake it in our own image, then at least leave it better than we found it. 

And when I hear this:

The Blob's raison d'être is to control the conversation around war by putting it on a plane above politics, in the domain of experts who supposedly know something about the world that voters and elected officials do not.

I get a strange feeling that so many more people are trying this in other areas, making for something like a theocratic militancy in our country (SCOTUS etc). And yeah, I think this here, sounds like much of what I've heard, though I think through weapons deals Trump (any president, to be certain) tried to assuage the blob:

Trump was a problem. He was the first president since Jimmy Carter who didn't care about the Blob. He wanted to leave Afghanistan, but he couldn't find a secretary of defense or a national security advisor who would help him to do it. So he wound up settling for a deal with the Taliban that passed the question of withdrawal on to his successor.

Then Biden, of course, surprised them as they surprised us:

The Blob was optimistic that Biden, like Trump, could be deterred from following through on his campaign promise to exit Afghanistan. Like Trump, Biden could not find a secretary of defense who shared his vision. He chose Lloyd Austin, a retired general who had made as much as $1.7 million from serving on the board of Raytheon, one of the biggest contractors in Afghanistan. Not surprisingly, Austin wanted Biden to extend the deadline for withdrawal past September 11. In April, according to the Times, Biden had to personally tell Austin that he expected the military to carry out his decision.

And indeed, these people aren't really good at war, but in getting money. And so, since Bide not only ended that money spigot, but showed how full of shit they were, they will forever be intent on punishing him:

What may have started as an earnest bid for victory evolved into a domestic opinion-managing campaign to perpetuate an expensive war that voters did not want, without much to show in the way of progress or results. We're seeing the tail end of that campaign now, as the Blob insists that Biden should have kept a small force in place, in perpetuity. If victory was not an option, at least no one had to know that we had already been defeated. 

Interesting, though I wish this article talked more about how these think tanks had such connections with the media and journalists who can't seem to get enough of them. 




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