Final Word from Monday, August 30, 2021

Near the end of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist is on the run from the authorities but manages to escape from the helicopters' field of view. Without a moment's hesitation, the spotlights and cameras switch to a different target, a completely innocent poor fellow who is simply out for a morning walk. The television viewers at home are none the wiser and get their fulfillment as the target is brought down. "The show's got to have a snap ending," Bradbury writes. Did Joe Biden's government pull the same trick on the world when it took retaliation for the suicide bombings at the Kabul Airport last week? Was it all a deadly media stunt? There is no way to know. As Culture Min. Lubomír Zaorálek said recently, so many lies have been told about the war in Afghanistan.... In boasting about its latest conquest, the U.S. Defense Dept. repeated that it will continue to be able to conduct "over-the-horizon" operations without being in Afghanistan. In other words, the war in Afghanistan ended, but then another one began. Still unclear is whether the CR and the rest of Nato will be expected to be part of this new war too. [ Czech Republic NATO United States White House president Pres. ]