uh, Doug...this is a dead end
marlowe would like nothing better than for us to believe him a Junior G-Man in psy-ops, and the other one is, in my opinion, merely naive. American culture can be, particularly for those consumers who have neither read ambitiously nor traveled much outside these shores, as stultifyingly insular in its way as that of the old USSR. cybermace hears Our Leader proclaim, in last week's embarassing press conference with Tony Blair, that this mugging has broad international support, with a coalition "bigger in numerical terms than the one we had in 1991," neglecting to mention that in 1991 we had the European A-list solidly behind the undertaking, whereas this time we've paid hefty bribes to secure the names of Lower Slobbovia and West Bumfuck for our roster--he hears this, and doesn't fill in the negative spaces. If you point out to him that by overwhelming margins the populations of our notional allies oppose the invasion, he will reply that the various heads of state are displaying leadership by refusing to be swayed by popular passions. If this is "leadership" then Saddam Hussein, whom we are told is hated and feared by 95% of his people, has it in spades, nicht?
But this goes off-topic. Occam's Razor, Doug, Occam's Razor. The US government doesn't need to employ these two to churn the forum here--each, for his own reasons, is a volunteer, and really, you'll only make yourself look silly (granting that this is the flame forum, where choleric silliness is far from being in short supply) if you pursue it. Take my advice and walk away from this hobbyhorse.
cordially,
[edit: typo]
