Well, right, I mean I think it DOES happen at times in the US too, just that it’s not the primary method of control.
CleverOleg
Yes. Thanks to Cheney and Rumsfeld in particular, the MIC has privatized and outsourced so much that while I wouldn’t say it’s all a grift or that profit hasn’t always been the point anyway, it’s a situation of a quantitative change leading to a qualitative change. The pursuit of profit via military industry has become so desperate they are willing to sacrifice their ability to wage war for it.
Western media just takes dictation.
If our comrades here learn nothing of media literacy other than this, they will still be doing OK. When we talk about the US government or bourgeoisie “controlling” the newsmedia, it’s not done by someone at the CIA calling up a newsroom producer and telling them to talk about how Iran is only 0.001 seconds away from having a nuke. It’s how an entire ecosystem of “experts” has been cultivated (just to pick one person as an example, look at Sam Vinograd) over the decades. These experts are the only people who are ever brought on, or the only people who are spoken to off-camera. These experts often have some sort of access or just air of authority that the media needs. So they just unquestioningly repeat what is said. If you question the narrative that’s being put out there, your connections get frozen and now when it comes time to get an inside scoop or have some former admiral on who looks like he knows what he’s talking about, there’s no one who will return your calls.
and not wanting to get into a mess he knows will kill his isolationist rhetoric and everything his political career stands on.
You know, I have to wonder if Trump watched that Tucker Carlson / Ted Cruz interview? Tucker absolutely curb stomped Cruz and really made him look like a devious little asshole. Tucker laid out the case for not getting involved pretty well. It honestly may have altered Trump’s perceptions of this situation. We know Trump loves his TV and will base decisions on what he sees.
If Tucker fucking Carlson is the person who ended up saving the lives of countless Iranians, that’s an all time “extremely critical support” moment.
This is the answer. A big reason why some countries are (disappointingly) friendly with Israel and the US? Military tech. If you’ve got good military products to sell then it’s very easy to make friends.
In fact, my understanding is that this is a way in which the US ties other countries to Israel on purpose. Say there’s some American military tech you want but the US won’t sell to you? If the US wants you closer to Israel then it turns out you can buy it from Israel and the US will conveniently look the other way. I think this is the case for Vietnam and to a certain extent China.