Making you anxious is profitable

The war against Iran has brought into existence a plethora of “experts” who hold forth with opinions on the military, war, and history.  A multitude of talking heads on main stream media, YouTube vlogs, Instagram. TikTok, and X posts are full of expert opinions on the current war with Iran. These “experts” consist of retired military personal from generals and colonels to corporals who worked in the motor pool.  Other “experts” are social science professors who opine on the progress of the Iranian war by comparing it to some obscure battle between the Romans and the Parthians in 53 BC.  As Marshall McLuhan famously said, “the medium is the message”, and the message of these videos and posts is “trust the experts”.

According to these “experts” President Trump doesn’t have a plan for the war, and doesn’t know how to get out of the “quagmire” of Iran. The experts assure us with an air of having superior knowledge that even though it has only been sixteen (16) days since the war started, we are losing, and can’t win. They tell us that the USA is entangled in the war with Iran more deeply than it was stuck in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan, and there is no way out. They tell us that Iran has closed the Straits of Hormuz and the Department of War never planned for this contingency and has no idea what to do. They tell us that oil prices are skyrocketing, the price of gas will triple, and there will be a food crisis with mass starvation beginning starting by the end of the month.  This is all utter nonsense, but we are told we have to believe it because it is being said by the experts.

The emergence of all these experts has nothing to do with expertise. Its purpose is to cause anxiety, play to the algorithm, and increase the number of clicks and views on the various social media channels pushing them. Clicks and views means money to these channels.

These experts are so easily debunked it is obvious they have no idea what they are talking about.  Here are a few examples.

(1) They tell us that Trump and the Department of War have no plan, despite the fact that we have planned for war with Iran and the closing and reopening of the Straits of Hormuz since 1979 and well before that. For over a century the military has entire departments call War Plans, which develops and revises plans for military conflicts and contingencies where military force is required, with every nation in the world, even Iran.

(2)  They say that Trump and his administration haven’t told us what his plan is, and hasn’t been consistent in its statements on how the war is progressing, when the US will disengage, and what he considers to be victory.  People who are professing to be experts on war are saying this!  I guess the Trump administration and the military should publicly disclose the US war plans, and let the public know its decision-making process and how it chooses targets, because obviously the IRCG doesn’t watch the news, doesn’t watch press conferences, or read official statements. As long as 2600 years ago, in 590 B.C., Sun Tzu, said in chapter one of his book The Art of War, that “the way of war is a way of deception”. In chapter one of this book that is still required reading in every military academy in the world (except, I guess, the ones these experts go to), Sun Tzu continues,  “when able, feign inability”, “when near appear far”, when deploying troops appear not to be”, “if the enemy is weak stir him to pride”, attack where he is unprepared, appear where you are unexpected”.  The US military and President Trump know what they are saying, and we can only hope the enemy is confused by their statements as badly as these so called “experts” are.

(3)  They tell us that oil prices are skyrocketing, the price of gas will triple, and there will be a food crisis with mass starvation beginning starting by the end of the month.  Really?  The war has only been going on for 16 days, and the experts are already predicting global economic collapse and mass starvation. All that’s coming out of the battlefield is propaganda from all sides. There has been almost no actual hard data, only a few videos of no use in understanding what is actually happening.   Anyone who can make predictions based on sixteen days of propaganda and TikTok videos should be hailed as the new Nostradamus.

(4)  They tell us that our Gulf state Arabs allies are going to abandon us because the are being hit with drones and turn their support toward Iran.  I guess these experts don’t know that the Arabs and Persians have been blood enemies for the last 1400 years.  This historical animosity between Arabs and Persians runs so deep that during his execution Saddam Hussein’s shouted from the gallows, with the noose around his neck, “I have saved you from destitution and misery and destroyed your enemies, the Persians”. In his final letter before his execution Saddam wrote that the “enemies of your country, the invaders and the Persians”.  So perhaps the fact that Ayatollah regime governing Iran is sending drones and missiles toward their Gulf Arab neighbors has little to do with the US or Israel and more to do with a ingrained 1400-year-old hatred?  Perhaps the Arab rulers of the Gulf states would rather seek vengeance against their millennium old enemy than lose face and seek an alliance with them out of fear?

All the appearance of this plethora of experts proves is that human memory is short. How long has it been since Covid? Anyone taking heed of these “experts” has forgotten Covid experts telling us to wear a mask, social distance, stay inside, 14 days to flatten the curb, and the jab will prevent infection.  You would think people had learned that when it comes to analysis and predictions, the last person you want to trust is an expert.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)