Theater Of The Absurd: Condi Sends Negroponte To Poke Musharraf

[For more about Fatima Bhutto, click here!]

In the old days, when I cared about baseball, I used to read a lot of books about it.

Oh, unseeing youth!
How can it be so shallow and short-sighted?

from "Experience" by Gentle Giant
(watch them play it here!!)

One of those books, by former American League umpire Ron Luciano, described an "argument" between then-Orioles manager Earl Weaver and another umpire. A call had gone against the Orioles, and suddenly the umpire who had made that call found Weaver in his face, jumping and shouting and poking him in the chest.

All the jumping and shouting and poking was standard procedure for Weaver; it never surprised the umpires. But in this case the call hadn't even been close! And instead of berating the umpire who'd made it, Weaver was saying "I just want YOU [poke] to know that if I was ever in a FIGHT [poke] I would want YOU [poke] on my SIDE [poke], because you're like a BROTHER [poke] to me!"

So the umpire says, "What's the problem, Earl?" and Weaver [still poking] says, "We haven't played well in a week. My guys are lethargic. The crowd is just sitting there. And I need to get thrown out of a ballgame!"

So the ump throws him out, the crowd goes wild, the Orioles wake up and go on a winning streak; mission accomplished.

I couldn't help thinking of that when I read this:

LAHORE: The American pressure on General Pervez Musharraf to scrap the state of emergency will reach its climax on Saturday when Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte reaches Islamabad to warn the General either to get in line or face the consequences...

Perhaps it's not a very good analogy. But when it comes to analogies, the bar's been set quite low around here lately, since we've been discussing Professor Keith Seffen and his explanation of the destruction of the World Trade Center in terms of blowing up a party balloon.

My point is not that Negroponte needs to be thrown out of a ballgame, but that there's more theater here than meets the eye. And less democracy.

If you listen to Benazir Bhutto, or George Bush, or Condi Rice, you'll hear all kinds of talk about "restoring democracy". As if Pakistan were a democracy two weeks ago. In the theater of the absurd these people get top billing.

As Amir Mir wrote for India's DNA [same link]:

The official said the Americans wanted Musharraf to give Bhutto a level-playing field in which she could win the next polls.

Apparently the theater works, according to Pakistani journalist (and crown princess?) Fatima Bhutto, who explains:

Pakistanis follow American elections very closely, because they affect us so much. But, if you ask most Pakistanis, they believe earnestly that Republicans are the best...

Why, you ask?

... because they'll give us a lot of money, aid and weapons. The average person forgets that, in return, we have to do the American's dirty work for them. I think what a lot of people are most upset about is right now is that Americans are threatening to cut aid. The average Pakistani doesn't think about what we have to do to get that money.

This is from an interview with Celeste Fremon at Huffington Post, in which Fatima Bhutto makes an important observation regarding political theater and her aunt Benazir, "daughter of the East (read: West)":

Q: Now that your aunt's again under house arrest, and has ratcheted up her calls for General Musharraf to step down, the media is reporting that the Bush-brokered power sharing deal between her and the general is now off.

A: A lot of this is theater. Actually, it seems very much still on. Her corruption cases remain withdrawn -- as per the arrangements of the deal. all her supporters and her party members are allowed into the compound with her. She addresses her supporters outside through a megaphone. And she is granted amazing access to the media here, while other political parties have been given a blanket ban. If they want to hold a press conference they're not allowed. Only the Islamic party is given similar freedoms. And it isn't Benazir's supporters getting arrested by the thousands. It's the lawyers who have been charged with treason, and the journalists.

I think you should read the whole piece. I got there from Jenkin's Ear, which also mentioned Fatima Bhutto's "Iraq Redux?", and quoted some of it, and linked to my coverage of it, but doesn't "particularly recommend" my blog. As Jenkin's Ear explains:

I also read and recommend the Huffington Post, which follows a generally Hollywood liberal line; but do not usually link to its blog posts because they are widely read. I do not particularly recommend the Winter Patriot blog, which contains extensive discussion of 9/11 conspiracy theories, etc.

9/11 conspiracy theories? Oh, right. That's what it looks like to Jenkin's Ear.

But what we've been discussing here lately has been a very clear instance of major media telling obvious lies to propagate the conclusions of an "academic paper" (though not the paper itself) which hasn't even been published!

I would expect "a blog focusing mainly on press reports relevant to the US international position, from foreign sources" to be attracted by such a story, not repelled by it. Oh well. Maybe interested, but not in such a critical way.

Someday, somewhere, I am going to find somebody who can tell me how it's possible to understand what's happening in Pakistan, and the obvious media tendency to paint an entirely different picture of it, without understanding what happened on 9/11, and the obvious media tendency to paint an entirely different picture of that. And when I do, I will tell you all about it.

And somewhere else I will meet someone else who will help me to understand how all these tendencies miraculously work together, all pulling in the same direction at every possible opportunity, without any conspiracy. That'll be a good one, and I'll be sure to tell you about that, too.

But then again, perhaps it's not so much the "conspiracy theories" but the "etc" that makes Jenkin's Ear so comfortable with Huffington Post and so nervous about the Winter Patriot blog. The old "etc" will do you in every time, won't it, Jenk?

Of course in this case the "etc" refers to such things as how false-flag terror can be used to create an enemy against whom war can be waged; or how the war can then be made to last forever, or how it can be used to "justify" all manner of abuses.

It's so easy a bunch of idiots could do it.

It's just like blowing up a balloon.

As Fatima Bhutto told Celeste Fremon:

[Benazir Bhutto] addresses her supporters outside through a megaphone. And she is granted amazing access to the media here, while other political parties have been given a blanket ban. If they want to hold a press conference they're not allowed. Only the Islamic party is given similar freedoms.

A tip of the cold cap to Jenkin, and best of luck with that ear.

~~~

For more about Fatima Bhutto, click here!