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The first rule of covert operations, once referred to as "false flag" attacks back when flags were a thing, is that one must create a plausible enemy.
One of the best dramatizations of covert operations I've ever found is The Princess Bride. Follow me here, I know it's not what you expected.
The evil Prince Humperdinck of Florin wants to attack Guilder, a neighboring country, for economic benefits. He hatches a plot to have his wildly popular bride-to-be kidnapped and specific clues left to point the finger at Guilder operatives. The plan goes awry when the anti-hero, a man dressed in black and wearing a mask called Dread Pirate Roberts, intervenes to save the future princess bride.
This brilliant and humorous film subtly shows how possible it is to create an enemy, blame it for everything wrong in your own country, and have your best-laid plans shot out from under you by someone who, on the surface, looks like a bad guy.
It also shows how comedy is often one of the best ways to deliver serious messages in a non-threatening manner.
Speaking of comedy, let's turn our attention to the US, shall we?
For months now, the US media and the Democratic Party - which includes its titular head Barack Obama - have done everything in their power to vilify the Russians, and especially Vladimir Putin. The Russians have been blames for everything from economic collapse to low-flush toilets. The US has in effect poked Russia with sharp sticks, and then runs to mommy when the bear growls. Even Hillarys clear and blatant vote-rigging in the primary elections has been blamed on nefarious Russian agents.
The truth is that the US tried to collapse the Russian economy. The US tried to shoot Putin out of the air. And the US tried to drive Putin to ruin. Why those crafty Democrats have even tried to tell us that the Russians were massing for an attack on NATO.
There is only one reason for this unbridled effort to demonize the Russians: they are to be used as a scapegoat for something big. We can only guess at the scope and nature of the plan, but the obvious part is that the Russian are being played for Guilder, and one suspects that Trump is the Dread Pirate Roberts, the vilified masked party-crasher.
The only things missing are the shrieking eels.
Don't get me wrong here - the Republicans are not innocents, they have their own plan that looks something like The Hunt for Red October. But it's the Democratic Party's Princess Bride scenario that is front-and-center at the moment.
And yes, there's a reason I often use movie plots to explain current events. The way I see it, Hollywood is the US version of a war college, where various scenarios are literally played out as a form of entertainment, both to soften the public mind by planting memes, and the other to see to which plots the public will take most kindly. Most major studio movies are behavioral modification efforts that teach audiences how to act, what to believe and what to expect. If we judge by the most prominent themes in movies, we are in for dystopian societies, apocalyptic wars and marauding aliens.
If you ever want to know what the US is planning, just watch movies.
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