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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 24-Feb-07
This week's idiot of the week: Israeli defense minister Peretz

Web Log - February, 2007

This week's idiot of the week: Israeli defense minister Peretz

What the hell was this guy thinking?

Israel's Defense Minister Amir Peretz (right) looks through binoculars with the lens cap on. On the left is the army's new Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. They're reviewing a military drill in the Golan Heights. <font size=-2>(Source: msnbc.com)</font>

Israel's Defense Minister Amir Peretz (right) looks through binoculars with the lens cap on. On the left is the army's new Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. They're reviewing a military drill in the Golan Heights. (Source: msnbc.com)

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz was photographed and videotaped on Friday looking through binoculars with the lens cap on.

CNN showed him raising the binoculars to his eyes three separate times -- each time with the lens cap on.

Do you know who this guy is? He's Israel's Defense Minister.

This is the guy who was in charge of Israel's military last summer, when Israel panicked and launched the Lebanon war within four hours, with no plan and no objectives.

In the scene photographed above, Peretz is reviewing a military drill in the Golan Heights. The army's new Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, is explaining what's going on and pointing out the manoeuver's fine points. Several times, Peretz raises his binoculars and looks through them, but of course he can't see anything because the lens cap is on.

Is this guy a total moron? Has he never used binoculars before? Can he not ask what the problem is?

It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant politicians are about subjects that they're supposed to be their jobs.

I've pointed out several times on this web site how journalists and politicians are looking more and more like complete idiots.

ABC's George Stephanopoulos looked like an idiot in November because Jordan's King Abdullah had to tell him five times of the importance of the Israeli/Palestine situation, but he was still clueless. NBC's Chris Matthews exhibited vitriolic partisanship and sheer stupidity after President Bush's speech, making it clear that he knows nothing about such things as the Iran/Iraq war or the Truman Doctrine. CNN's Michael Ware, talking about the Iraq war, said "If this isn't a civil war, then I'd hate to see a real civil war," apparently completely unaware that there is a real civil war going on Darfur, and that the Iraq war is nothing like that.

The stupidity of politicians came to public attention in November, when Jeff Stein, national security editor for Congressional Quarterly, wrote an article about how he'd inverviewed Silvestre Reyes, whom Nancy Pelosi had selected to be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Reyes didn't even know whether al-Qaeda was a Sunni or Shia organization. And this isn't a political thing: Stein found the same level of ignorance across parties, even among analysts who were supposedly experts on the subject they couldn't answer questions about.

Now, if you don't know that al-Qaeda is a Sunni organization, then you cannot possibly know anything about what's going on in Iraq. It's impossible. And Reyes has been on the House Intelligence Committee for five years, since 9/11. I don't know how it's possible to be involved in that subject for five years without accidentally learning something, but he and other politicians succeeded in learning nothing.

And now we have the dysfunctional defense minister, Amir Peretz, of the dysfunctional Israeli government, who can't even figure out how binoculars work.

When you see any of these politicians on television, pretending to know something -- just remember this: they're idiots. (24-Feb-07) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 24-Feb-07 This week's idiot of the week: Israeli defense minister Peretz

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 24-Feb-07
This week's idiot of the week: Israeli defense minister Peretz