The dead man whose chest the republican candidates are sitting on has been identified.It is our old friend Dick Cheney ,a.k.a.Darth Vader.Dearth might be more appropriate for lack of perspective,humility,and good judgment.He now professes to be the unofficial foreign policy adviser to many of the republican presidential hopefuls.Considering that Benjamin Netanyahu as such would be unacceptable to most Americans his choice might even be logical.His suggestion of a million man standing military as a deterrent to Iran would mean adopting a policy of conscription and even with the elimination of the last standing “social program” would mean an increase in taxes.By inference an acceptable strategy would be to push Iran into nuclear war before Iran has nuclear weapons.This would be something that Netanyahu could probably approve.The fact that Americans would be fighting and dying in Netanyahu’s war doesn’t seem important to the new Neo-coms.Donald Trump’s wall with 50 to 100,00 police and border patrol persons and Cheney’s huge standing military would certainly take our minds off the issues of democracy and its relation to equity of access.Yo Ho Ho…
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The Octogenarians 
Some clarification in response to Daedal2207 (9 Sep 15):
My points were: The chess analogy did not apply well as an aid in understanding the real world. The dynamics of power are obvious (intuitively clear to most twelve year olds) thus do not require brilliance to understand. Brilliance itself is capable of imaginatively inventing complexities that harmfully obscure rather than clarify (read Thomas Sowell’s “Intellectuals and Society”).
As for today’s international situation being more complex? Our choice of weapons has increased in complexity. But the reasons we use weapons have not increased in complexity – not since that time in pre-history when man became capable of distinguishing between “us” and “them”.
That any given individual would die a violent death was probably more likely at any time in the past than today (If existing powers allow a greater proliferation of atomic weaponry there will likely be a point of change). When the simple, easy to understand dynamics of power (and deterrence) are applied wisely to preserve the best values the probabilities of longevity expand. I defined “best values” to mean, “Maximum possible individual freedom, self-guided as much as possible, necessarily linked to the scientific method”. Measured by these easy-to-understand principles Dick Cheney’s history of recommending increased strength is sound. Daedal2207 states that Dick Cheney uses poor judgment – he is compared to “a bull in a china shop”. But raging fires are cropping up today in lands that were relatively secure just seven years ago. Obama’s efforts to squelch these expanding fires indicate that what he perceives to be water is actually gasoline. That we can create cute analogies demonstrates only that we have a sharp difference of opinion. Most important is the quality of supporting evidence, empirical and logical.
Along this line I have a request for Daedal2207: In his recent statement he presents the following; “The Israel that emerged from the monstrosities of WW2 now victimizes the Palestinians along with the rest of the world.”
Explain – How is Israel “victimizing” the Palestinians and “the rest of the world”?
I see a small country that is under great threat. It is well organized, with sound, productive values. Instead of victimizing the world it has contributed more life-enhancing, life-saving inventions in its short existence than the vast majority of any size. A brief search on the web reveals: “In the six-plus decades of Israel’s existence, the nation has proven to be a global pacesetter in innovation and the development technology start-ups. According to recent story in the online magazine ISRAEL21c, Israel has the most start-ups per capita worldwide and the third-highest number of patents per head.
Just some of Israeli inventions include the Pillcam, a pill-sized camera that can pass through the digestive tract and detect diseases, and Copaxone, a revolutionary medicine treating Multiple Sclerosis.
Microsoft Windows NT and XP both were developed in Israel. Another memorable invention was the instant messaging service ICQ, sold later to AOL for more than $400 million.”
It should be obvious that a party’s bias against Israel might (partially) explain current decisions being made with Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East. An admiration for Israel would increase a sense of urgency. So – what is the truth about Israel? (Truth should dictate which sentiments and which actions are “appropriate”.)
The rest of the world comment was I’ll placed,what was meant was Israel along with the rest of the world.The truth about Israel depends on what issue is being discussed.I do recall Mossad watching the explosives loaded truck rolling toward the Marine barracks in Lebanon without an attempt to warn.We can conclude that Israel’s interest are not identical with ours.
Is he Darth Vader, or is he Winston Churchill? Humility is a wash. It is unlikely to be present in any frame of major leadership. What is important is an accuracy of judgment pertaining to the threats facing us. “Peace in our own time” is the chant of today’s U.S. Presidential leadership. In direct contrast are the judgments of Dick Cheney (and the greater number of retired Admirals and Generals) about a growing threat. But unlike that time in September of 1938 when Neville Chamberlain and Herr Hitler signed their infamous agreement, the current regime representing Iran has been engaged in proxy expansions and has literally been killing Americans for years. “Death to America” rings throughout the streets of Iran and throughout the current speeches of the Mullah dictatorship. Intercontinental missiles are apparently part of their military effort and we should understand that such devices are not needed to destroy Netanyahu’s Israel. But somehow it is believed by today’s Chamberlains that if we extend to Iran’s leaders the “dignity” of acceptance they will cease to act like God-ordained pirates and will become respectful members within the family of man. Yo Ho Ho.
In the pre WW2 world of chess, dominated by Europeans, an American player named Frank Marshall was a force to be reckoned with.He was U.S. chess champion for eight consecutive years.His style of play was daring and aggressive and he invented a daring and aggressive opening called “the Marshall Attack”.However if the defender survived the sound and fury of the attack,he had little difficulty in the middle and end game.Not until Bobby Fisher (with his decidedly un-American feelings) was an American to dominate chess.We now hear that Putin is sending advanced weapons to Assad with the possibility of adding up to 200,000 advisers.This is more of a threat than the rants from Iran and North Korea.It is an old dictum in chess that the threat is often more potent than its execution.A knee jerk response to verbalization will leave us spread all over the world and unpopular to boot.No Marshall attacking here! With the arrogant,naive misreading of the world situation that characterized his stewardship on record,the judgment of those who would take Cheney’s advice has to be questioned.
It may not be “A bottle of Rum” involved in this toasting but a glass of Vodka that celebrates three dimensional political chess!
Chess is a fine game. But it assumes that each player knows the rules, agrees on the rules, and has an even number of equally strong and weak players. Because the real world does not provide these conditions we had better be skeptical as to what this comparison reveals. To the degree that we might apply a-real-world chess example let’s acknowledge the value of structuring the “game” such that the side with the best values for advancing humanity is sure to win (Consider worth preserving: Maximum possible individual freedom, self-guided as much as possible, necessarily linked to the scientific method). We ought to want this side to have so many powerful players (i.e. twenty queens, 100 bishops, etc. more than any other player) such that no opposing force would have a chance at “winning” – and none would be suicidal enough to try. (Those unafraid of suicide must be kept away from all power.) All potential players should be certain that we would use all our power. Smart players understand that to the degree a challenger believes we will not use our power it ceases to exist as a power of deterrence. This makes it more probable that it will actually have to be used for killing – or be killed. It isn’t because of Dick Cheney that the Putin vodka drinkers (and many others) are choosing to challenge the values described above. Dick Cheney’s wise recommendations in this regard have been ignored. The last seven years have altered the real-world-game dramatically, dangerously.
More interesting and possibly even more important for humanity’s future is the fact that everything stated above would be understood intuitively by most twelve year olds romping about in any playground. Apparently chess-master levels of brilliance sometimes obscure (or fail to prevent the obscuration of) the obvious. I think the best explanation for this fascinating mystery can be found in Thomas Sowell’s “Intellectuals and Society”.
The message of the cults and their leaders is that there are many who would commit suicide apparently because they are invisible and given no role.Leaving them out of the game is impossible because they have a new identity.Leaving their predecessors out of the game is where this all started way back in prehistory.The Germany of WW2 with the monstrous legacy of the holocaust is now the forward looking Germany that is trying to negotiate with other Europeans the salvage of over a million refugees of today’s wars. The leader of Al Qaeda has declared Isis illegitimate while declaring a willingness to fight alongside them against the forces of the west.The Israel that emerged from the monstrosities of WW2 now victimizes the Palestinians along with the rest of the world.Hitler’s Germany was close to acquiring the atom bomb and (according to the Aug.5th L.A. Times)tried to send a sub with fissionable material to Japan when the war was lost for Germany. The sub never arrived but even had it arrived it would have presented the Japanese military with the centrifuging problems that are the only deterrents to bomb building capability today.
Don is right;the complexity of today’s world is beyond the brilliance of the chess player,But in the direction of complexity not in the direction of simplicity and the obvious. A dialogue must be maintained even when fighting is necessary.A grand strategy will not emerge,a number of microstrategies are required in adherence to an overall plan.some even departing temporarily from that plan.Frank Marshall with all his brilliance could not prevail against the Laskers and the Capablancas. Against Watson(the super computer)none of these guys or their modern counterparts can prevail. Dick Cheney is still a bull in a nuclear china shop.
Reblogged this on daedal2207's Blog.