I’m sure that you heard the story of ‘Peter & the Wolf’ when you were a kid…it was even set to music… :-)
You may have also been in relationship with someone, whether professional, platonic, or romantic, where you’ve caught them lying to you so many times that you can’t trust them any more. Sure, you may even carry on relating to them or even loving them…but something inside you is ‘broken’…your ability to trust. It’s a bond that once broken, is seldom healed.
I have witnessed so many politicians lying to me over the years, that my ‘trust’ in the ‘breed’ is no more. When you’ve been paying attention as long as I have…and believe me when I say that ‘paying attention’ has been both my job and my joy for as long as I can remember…if you are not cynical, or at least skeptical about the constant stream of claims and counter-claims that come out of their pie-holes…then you haven’t been ‘paying attention’….not really. In short, they lie about stuff, they ‘spin’ stuff., they ‘sell’ stuff, all the time…that’s what they do…ALL of them.
Now, some of course lie more egregiously than others, some more readily, some more convincingly, and some…the sociopaths…are more difficult to read, even if you’ve studied non-verbal communication & the structure of language. Hence, paying attention to history, to context and to the question ‘cui bono’ is essential when trying to make sense of geopolitics. Any ‘analyst’ or ‘strategy’ guy that doesn’t do this…no matter how smart he or she may be…will be fooled more often than not. Why? Because politicians know lots of ‘stuff’ that you don’t…and they ain’t gonna tell you about it.
So…after banging on for days about Syria…I’m now back on the Skripals. Here’s the thing though…they are NOT two separate subjects. The demonisation of Russia is an essential element of the strategy in Syria. But we’ve talked about that before, so I’ll just move straight to the point. As you will know by now, the two Russians accused of being GRU agents responsible for the ‘chemical attack’ in Salisbury presented themselves for an interview with RT today. If you haven’t watched it, or have seen the ‘snippets’ that media outlets use to promote their particular agenda, you can find the full interview here:
https://www.rt.com/news/438350-petrov-boshirov-interview-simonyan/
What next? Well of course this will run for weeks, months, perhaps years. The resolution, if there is one, will likely be crafted by ‘agenda’ rather than truth. What’s my position? When I heard, and then read in the Guardian, that Downing Street’s response is that this is ‘an insult to the public’s intelligence’…
…my response to the Prime Minister was the following:
“An insult to our intelligence? Blair lied about Iraq, Straw lied about rendition, Cameron lied about Libya & May supports genocide in Yemen, ethnic cleansing in Palestine & terrorism in Syria. I don't know who did it, but I know this: I don't trust @10DowningStreet...on ANYTHING”
Finally, very few metaphors fit perfectly, and this one is no exception. There are two things to add…and of course, this is my opinion:
The Russian ‘threat’ isn’t a real wolf
She will eventually be ‘eaten’…not by a wolf, but by her own deceit