What HE Said

Clapper: Now is the most crisis-ridden, challenging time in past 50 years. http://blogs.cfr.org/zenko/2015/02/28/highlights-of-the-worldwide-threats-hearing/ … Think about what that covers. Vietnam, coup & slaughter in Indonesia, Prague Spring & Warsaw Pact invasion, Cultural Revolution, Six Day War, Yom Kippur War... ...(not even out of 70s yet.) 1st oil crisis, 2nd oil crisis, Iranian revolution, Mecca uprising, Iraq-Iran War, USSR coup, collapse of USSR. Could go on and on (and on) but for Clapper to say with straight face that THIS is most crisis-filled time in his career is a bad joke.

Iran might get the bomb? Mao, India, Pakistan, Israel & maybe apartheid South Africa all GOT the bomb in/near period Clapper's career covers.

ISIS is a threat? So were a dozen or more terrorist groups from '60s and '70s whose names have mostly been forgotten.

State system in Middle East collapsing? States have been collapsing (or threatening to collapse) somewhere in ex colonial world since WWII.

Overall, world is LESS violent, LESS crisis-ridden than in the '70s, '80s & '90s. http://www.prio.org/News/Item/?x=1862 …But 2 things HAVE changed that allow Clapper to peddle BS without getting called on it: a) 9/11 brought violent conflict to U.S. shores; b) global conflict now saturated with MSM coverage, which constantly, endlessly plays up the "threat to America" angle. The illusion of American invulnerability to informal nonstate conflict (i.e. terrorism) was permantently punctured by 9/11 just as illusion of invulnerability to global war was permanently punctured first by Pearl Harbor & then by Soviets getting the bomb. Americans now have to live in the same world as everybody else, but have near zero tolerance for the insecurity that goes along with that.

So when guys like Clapper say this is most dangerous time ever, what they really mean is: most dangerous to the domestic tranquility that once allowed US elites to pursue foreign policies with relatively little concern for security and/or political consequences at home.

[...]

Of course, just cuz Clapper & Co. are full of shit now doesn't mean they'll be wrong forever. In EMs, state collapse, turbocharged by climate change, drought, tribalism & fanaticism. In DMs, plutocracy, corruption, economic stagnation. These things really COULD make mid 21st century the most conflict & crisis-ridden period Clapper's ever seen.

True. Before the end of our time, the world could go up in flames.

But of course, there's nothing the national security state can do about any of that -- except freak out.

Which is what they do best. And take as many people with them as they can.

And why isn’t James Clapper rotting in jail for lying to Congress? I believe that’s a crime.