The Filipino Monkey and World War III

“False face must hide what the false heart doth know.” - Shakespeare

In a recent post I suggested that the incident in the Straits of Hormuz a week or so ago in which Iranian military speedboats allegedly harassed and threatened U.S. warships sounded suspicious (and conveniently timed) and was possibly just the latest stage in Dubbya’s attempts to foment a hot war with Iran. Since then the Iranians have released their own video version that paints the incident in a different light than the one originally seen and the Pentagon’s explanations change by the day. The latest, and thus far wackiest, account, involves some phantom of the airwaves disgustingly referred to as “The Filipino Monkey”, and is explained in some detail by Justin Raimondo over at AntiWar.com. Check it out.

More and more it seems that if one wishes to learn about local fires or road closures or bank robberies, the local television news will do nicely. But as the source and focus of the news is farther away it becomes less reliable and when it reaches the geo-political level it less resembles being given information than being handed an puzzle or riddle.

It amazes me that even when the members of the public are shown - over and over again - that their governments lie to them, by way of both real news (Gulf of Tonkin, Iraq’s WMD and Al Quaeda connection) and hyperbolic satirical fiction (e.g. Wag The Dog), it continues to accept that what is being said by that charming TV anchor has real meaning. I think a good first step to correcting this willful naivety might be for news outlets to adopt a policy whereby every item is introduced with the word “Maybe”.