Repercussions

"I remember talking to [Paul] Wolfowitz, in his office, in the Pentagon, and telling him -- this was after the propaganda build up had started, before the war. I said, 'You know, these guys are not going to welcome you.'

"He said, 'Why?' I said, 'For one thing, these guys detest foreigners, and the few who really like you are the least representative of the various breeds of people there. They're going to fight you, then, if you occupy the place there's going to be a massive insurgency.'"

"He said, 'No, no, they'll be glad to see us,'" Lang continued. "This will start the process of revolution around the Middle East that will transform everything.'

No, Lang told Wolfowitz, "that's not gonna happen. It's just an impossibility. They're not like that. They don't want to be us."

-via The Washington Note

Wolfowitz was a Team B mutherfucker, that group of know-nothing sad sacks whose job was to invent Soviet Union supervillain scenarios in order to push their various agendas: direct conflict, inflating defense budgets, undermining the CIA. Team B was fantastically wrong about everything. The big question is whether they bought their own bullshit.

From the opening quote it seems that maybe Wolfowitz swallows bullshit for breakfast. Maybe he really thought there were Soviet stealth submarines. It certainly sounds like he believed in our own Reverse Domino Theory, US fairy dust sparking off the Glorious Owners' Revolution. Or maybe he's just good at regurgitating the party line and was signaling to Lang that real expert analysis wouldn't be necessary.

They weren't cherry-picking intelligence. They were cherry-picking stupidity.

And ensuring that the stupidest were given the plum jobs.

Lost Season Finale

I'm gonna lay out my own pet theory about the season finale before I forget about it.

Spoiler warning.

Jack and the Losties weren't just rescued back to the mainland - they were rescued and brought back in time.

A few things: When the hatch imploded (or whatever it did), Desmond went back in time and met someone else who also received visions. Assume that this actually occurred in a parallel timeline. It could be that certain members of Dharma (or some other faction) are able to insert themselves into other timelines - that they could use this to learn hard-to-find information or alter the course of events.

Regardless of this, back to my main conceit. Assume that the Losties on the beach were left behind.

If the Losties were rescued and brought back in time, this would explain:
-Why Jack spoke about his father as if his father were still alive. In the new timeline, Jack was able to stop his father's death.
-Kate's appearance and actions. In the new timeline she is still married to Callis. She is pissed at Jack both because of her feelings for him and because Sawyer was left behind.
-Why Oceanic Air is still in business. In the main timeline, the airline went under because of the crash. In the new timeline it is still in operation.
-Why nobody recognizes Jack as one of the survivors of Flight 815. Because in the new timeline it didn't crash. Maybe the flight never even happened. If the Losties were able to convincingly warn Oceanic about the upcoming crash, this might explain the 'gold passes' that allow the Losties to fly anywhere for no charge.
-Why Jack wants to get back - he couldn't save everyone.

I was reminded of two different works: the film Millenium and the novel Timequake.

There are still a ton of questions, of course. I'm probably completely wrong. But it's fun to piece things together.