Book Review - Inside the State Department: A Candid Appraisal of the Bureaucracy by Bryton Barron

This book is cited in Diana West’s American Betrayal. Barron reveals the difficulties people face when trying to get information from the government. He points out that the Chief of the Historical Division in the State Department advised Dean Acheson that the Yalta papers should not be published because they would “embarrass the Administration.” Also the historian in charge of the Potsdam papers informed his superiors that he had found documents “too hot for public eyes.” These papers were eventually published in a bowdlerized fashion. Barron reports, “Some 100 pages . . . were removed from the Yalta compilation after it was already in type.”Details about U.S. involvement in the slave trade and the Far Eastern settlement among other things were left out for the most part.” Also, “the first compiler of the Yalta papers were not permitted to see certain files.”

Diana West's No Fear

Diana West’s appropriately entitled book, No Fear, is an extensive account of United States policy toward the Middle East. She demonstrates that President Obama’s policy is essentially a continuation of the Bush policy. This policy is heavily influenced by political correctness, or a fear of accurately describing the enemy we are confronting. She quotes Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s comment at his Harvard address: “Must one point out that from ancient times a decline in courage has been considered the first symptom of the end?” What are people afraid of? In the United States this might include social ostracism, loss of employment or assignment to a re-education camp, sometimes called sensitivity training. In Europe it could include a jail sentence. In the Middle East it could involve beheading.
She quotes Secretary of State Clinton: “The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of other.” This from a government that has sacrilegious subsidized “art works” like “Piss Christ,” “Tongues of Flame,” “The Holy Virgin Mary,” “Tie Rack,” etc., etc., etc. As columnist John Leo stated: “In paintings and sculpture, the bashing of Christian symbols is so mainstream that it’s barely noticed.” The defenders of these examples of “artistic expression” are the same people who are outraged by the slightest criticism of islam.
More disturbing is the fact that numerous terrorists have been released from prison while U.S. servicemen are serving terms in federal prisons for apparent violations of the Rules of Engagement. These rules are so ludicrous that it prompted her to write, “They call this strategy COIN and wear uniforms, but really it’s psychosis and these strategist should be wearing hospital robes.”
This book illustrates how the elite has created much of the problems in the Middle East. Their nation building efforts have resulted in a surfeit of arms in the Middle East and the overthrow of admittedly corrupt regimes replaced by even more dangerous regimes. We must question the depth of the elite’s commitment to the U.S. by their actions. Our survival is at stake. As Diana West writes, “When a civilization no longer inculcates an overriding attachment to its own survival it no longer survives as a civilization.”

I “Misremember” You

Brian Williams’ “misremembering” has opened a can of worms.  Apparently “misremembering” is a common malady.  The incident has resurrected the “misremembering” of Hillary Clinton when she was under sniper fire in Bosnia.  Bill O’Reilly is being accused of “misremembering” during the Falklands war protest.  And, of course, there is Secretary of State John Kerry’s “misremembering” of his time in Cambodia: ”I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies. . . . The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real."  “I have that memory which is seared--seared--in me." Apparently he could not get the correct administration right.  This took place during the Johnson Administration, unless I am “misremembering.”