Sometimes I really feel sorry for the authors of technothrillers and other crafters of fiction. Far too often, they find their works rejected by editors and readers as "too fantastic" or "too unbelievable." But what they come up with can not possibly be as insane as what happens in the real world.
For example: Syria.
Recently, Israel conducted a raid into Syria. By the best reports (and those are kind of sketchy, as no one who really knows is saying too much), it appears that Syria has been collaborating on a nuclear-weapons program with North Korea. As best as I can tell, North Korea has been declaring that it has given up its quest for the bomb, and is inviting in inspectors to prove it.
Of course, "given up" in this context doesn't mean "stopped," but "given it to Syria."
On the heels of this come reports that Syria also recently had a bit of an accident with a joint project they were working on with Iran. It seems someone got a little careless with chemical weapons, and a few dozen Syrians and Iranians died from mishandled Sarin and VX and other poison gases while they were working on adapting the weapons to ballistic missiles.
This is the same Syria that Speaker of the House Of Representatives paid a state visit to in April, bearing a "message of peace."
The same Syria that Representative (and presidential candidate) Dennis Kucinich also visited, taking the opportunity to meet with Syrian dorktator Bashar Assad, go on Syrian TV to blast President Bush and praise Syria for accepting Iraqi refugees. Kucinich, on the same trip, chose to skip going to Iraq because he didn't want to appear to "endorse" the US invasion, but Syria's ongoing occupation of Lebanon didn't come up.
The same Syria that the United Nations has just chosen as co-chair of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the watchdog group (and a useless, toothless dog that is) that is entrusted with making sure signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty don't develop nuclear weapons.
I considered making a few analogies to this sort of thing, such as Bill Clinton appointed dean of a women's college or Ted Kennedy head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, but I simply couldn't find something that was as grotesque as what is really happening in the real world.
There's an old saying that "truth is stranger than fiction." This is because fiction, at its core, has to be believable. Reality is under no such compunction to be realistic.
And damn, this just goes to prove it -- in spades.
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Comments (10)
A very astute commenter fro... (Below threshold)1. Posted by kim | September 20, 2007 7:19 AM | Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
A very astute commenter from Florida thinks there will be blockbuster news from the UN meeting. The Europeans are finally getting alarmed about Ahmadi-Nejad's madness.
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1. Posted by kim | September 20, 2007 7:19 AM |
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Posted on September 20, 2007 07:19
2. Posted by kim | September 20, 2007 7:50 AM | Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
I'm a little surprised the mullahs have let Ahmadi-Nejad come to New York. He is the last person to argue the reasonableness of Iran's course. Watch him melt.
Worse than last time, I mean. Last time he was convinced that the horrified looks on his audience's faces was amazement at his revelations. They were amazed, all right, but not at his holiness.
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2. Posted by kim | September 20, 2007 7:50 AM |
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Posted on September 20, 2007 07:50
3. Posted by Allen | September 20, 2007 8:35 AM | Score: -5 (7 votes cast)
Is this the same Syria that the GOP and State Dept had people with the speaker of the house? You forgot to mention who all was with the speaker, didn't you?
3. Posted by Allen | September 20, 2007 8:35 AM |
Score: -5 (7 votes cast)
Posted on September 20, 2007 08:35
4. Posted by JohnMc | September 20, 2007 8:35 AM | Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
Guys, the biggest news out of this is the silence. No one, including the UN, are crying foul. If Israel farts, the world condemns it. The news media's usually very leaky sources in the intelligence community and military (both US and Israeli) are clamed shut about this strike. These two obvious points mean that something really, really big happened (or was about to happen).
The story of the chemical warhead mishap is very troubling in itself because you don't typically mount a live chemical warhead on to a fueled missile without the intention of launching it. How often does the military of any country "test" a SCUD missile with a chemical warhead?
Tom Clancy quotes that are in perspective:
"Wars are begun by frightened men."
"The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense."
4. Posted by JohnMc | September 20, 2007 8:35 AM |
Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
Posted on September 20, 2007 08:35
5. Posted by kim | September 20, 2007 9:35 AM | Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
The war in Iraq is over, and just in time, too.
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5. Posted by kim | September 20, 2007 9:35 AM |
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on September 20, 2007 09:35
6. Posted by Scrapiron | September 20, 2007 10:32 AM | Score: 2 (6 votes cast)
So Syria and North Korea were trying to use some of the non-existent WMD from Iraq and got bombed for their trouble. That's just a start, they also tried to install some of the non-existent chem/bio material on a missile and set it off, killing themselves. When Americans are dying by the thousands due to the democrats ignorance of facts, a lot of Americans will wake up and the sight in D.C. won't be pretty.
6. Posted by Scrapiron | September 20, 2007 10:32 AM |
Score: 2 (6 votes cast)
Posted on September 20, 2007 10:32
7. Posted by GeminiChuck | September 20, 2007 10:42 AM | Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Totally agree with JohnMC (could that be McCain???) and Scrapion. Meanwhile the UN ,etc, is trying to force Isreal to give back the Golan Hts to Syria. When that happens, Syria (and Iran) wont need much of a WMD delivery system - just sorta lob the stuff over the cliff and they can achieve their goal of destroying Isreal. Then when the Isrealis flee the gas/poison/radiation they will run into good ol' Hamas - guess how they'll treat the newest refugees . . . gc
7. Posted by GeminiChuck | September 20, 2007 10:42 AM |
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on September 20, 2007 10:42
8. Posted by Jim Addison | September 20, 2007 1:27 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
JohnMc has it right - notice that even the Arab League only managed a perfunctory condemnation of the raid. Also, none of the national security reporters can seem to get any details from their sources.
This is the conjunction of two extremely rare conditions: Euro=peons and Arabs NOT condemning Israel for a raid on Arab land, and governments around the world being able to keep a tight lid on the same secret.
Either there was something very important in that desert, or it's the Second Harmonic Convergence . . .
In fairness to Pelosi and Kucinich: had they known about these projects, they probably would have threatened to negotiate before surrendering.
8. Posted by Jim Addison | September 20, 2007 1:27 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on September 20, 2007 13:27
9. Posted by marc | September 20, 2007 2:49 PM | Score: 0 (4 votes cast)
Allen:
Is this the same Syria that the GOP and State Dept had people with the speaker of the house? You forgot to mention who all was with the speaker, didn't you?Would that be the same Speaker that was explicitly told not to travel to Syria and the same GOP members that never received the same?
Funny you forgot to mention that.
9. Posted by marc | September 20, 2007 2:49 PM |
Score: 0 (4 votes cast)
Posted on September 20, 2007 14:49
10. Posted by spurwing plover | September 21, 2007 12:44 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
CROUCHING BEAR HIDDEN DRAGON
10. Posted by spurwing plover | September 21, 2007 12:44 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on September 21, 2007 00:44