Fibbing fibbers and the fibs they tell
From Uvalde to the Battle of Nasiriyah
Good Morning friends,
Hard to believe it’s been about 5 days since we’ve last written. Don’t mind admitting, we’ve spent most of it feeling rather numb and shaking our heads in disbelief at most of the revelations and rumors that are flying up out of Uvalde as people construct timelines and deconstruct the initial narrative of what happened and how it happened.
Experience teaches us, that the tale of “what happened” in any incident is usually incorrect when authorities put it out there quickly. The first draft of history is frequently flawed. But it is jaw dropping how quickly and how awkwardly things have fallen apart for Governor Greg Abbott and other officials involved in Uvalde.
Remember back in Gulf War II, when a young, female soldier was taken captive by insurgents after a convoy was ambushed during the battle of Nasiriyah? Initially, we all were told an uplifting tale of doomed heroism— how she fought to the end, burning through her ammo, trying to repel the attack before capture.
Then slowly, we learned the story was just the equivalent of some public affairs officer’s fever dream, constructing a narrative, perhaps, to play upon people’s predilections— distracting the public with such derring-do, and avoiding discussion and criticism of the pitched battles being fought.
The reality was PFC Jessica Lynch’s limbs were broken and she was knocked unconscious in a crash after the ambush began. Her rifle jammed. She never fired a shot. It seems she was plucked from the wreckage almost certainly while unconscious and in no state to fight.
We were later told that she was heroically rescued by Special Forces and super duper secret intelligence collection.
Another half truth, actually. She was found after an Iraqi civilian risked telling American forces her location.
Even now there remains a lot of uncertainty around the story, with some accounts saying she was treated humanely while in captivity, and others saying not.
Lynch herself says she was treated well enough, corroborating to some extent the accounts of civilian hospital staff where she was being kept, that they’d shielded her from the attention of Iraqi authorities. At least some reports still claim she was raped while unconscious.
Let us consider the story of Private Jessica Lynch as a baseline for how divergent the truth can be from the initial narrative. Is Uvalde worse? Probably, if one is predisposed toward thinking the worst of Governor Greg Abbot, and DPS Director Steve McCraw.
Many are.
Even now, several days removed from the day of events, one hesitates to wade too deeply into the waters of trying to judge between what’s been said and what actually happened. Reporters all over the country are doing a fine job of it already— constructing timelines and thoroughly demolishing seeming attempts by authorities both local and statewide to save face and excuse the inexcusable, even going so far as to characterize the actions of an off-duty Border Patrolman as being part of a coordinated effort, when in fact it’s now starting to look like local police tried to stop him from going on and killing the suspect.
That’s right— they may have tried to tell a hero not to be a hero. Things are already despicable— how much worse might they have been had further incompetence reigned?
Is incompetence even the right word? Both it and cowardice seem to fall short. One notes that Maoist China and old Communist Russia would’ve probably already started lining people up against the wall and shooting them over this dog’s breakfast.
Governor Greg Abbott is said to be livid over being given bad information to present to the press in the first hours. But so far, no heads have rolled.
One wonders who counseled Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin to turn to the Justice Department for a hopefully impartial investigation of what happened. As much as native pride makes one want to count on the Texas Rangers, one imagines the public at large will have difficulty believing any account associated with DPS won’t be tainted by self-serving urges.
The Austin-American Statesman has a pretty good piece that takes a look at McLaughlin’s background and offers up a thumbnail sketch, if you’re curious to know more about the man other than his facility for telling Beto O’Rourke what an s-o-b he is.
Self-serving behavior. That kind of sums up a lot of what’s at the root of most of the post-incident controversy.
One imagines Governor Abbott had all kinds of good reasons to rush to the scene and seemingly honcho the State’s response to the disaster. It’s what people expect. It looks statesmanlike. Possibly even Presidential, yeah? Shiver.
Instead, he’s wound up with egg all over his face.
The Governor should’ve had someone in his circle that was aware of the likelihood all of this might go sideways. It’s alarming that he or someone else with his ear didn’t spot it ahead of time, ready to caution him against getting into the mix so quickly. A naysayer, of sorts.
“Sic transit gloria mundi.” Latin translated to English: "Thus passes the glory of the world." We are told the phrase was spoken repeatedly into the ear of Roman Generals and Consuls during the glory of their triumphs from the Fields of Mars, through the streets of Rome to the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. The procession of a Triumph was a matter both political and religious. Face painted red, the subject of the Triumph was in some ways a literal representation of Jupiter triumphant and other divine figures. For that moment, he was a god on earth.
“Sic transit gloria mundi,” in today’s terms: “All glory is fleeting.” Or: “Don’t get it twisted, hoss. You’ll be just another schmuck shortly.”
So what’s to be done? People want a quick, snappy solution. Lock up the guns. Arm the teachers. Pass a few laws.
People need to realize— there isn’t a quick, snappy solution. Even if you could lock up all the guns— and you can’t— we would still have a mental sickness out there, raising it’s head.
We did not come to this point in a quick and snappy fashion. It took years of degradation to get here. It will take more years of work to fix it— work that no one seems willing to contemplate in anything more than an abstract fashion.
We include ourselves in this. Guilty as charged, readers. We are not sure where one would begin in trying to fix this. “Go to church” is just as glib and simplistic as “lock up the guns!”
It’s something to think about— something one hopes that better minds will take up the consideration of.
For now— we leave you with the latest news from West Virginia. A woman there used her concealed pistol to shoot and kill a man armed with an AR-15, who was firing into a crowd of people.
She killed him.
She saved lives. Should she be disarmed?
There’s a lot to talk about in the southern border crisis. Perennial favorite Todd Bensman was just in Del Rio, documenting the steady, constant flow of illegal aliens and asylum seekers boarding buses and pouring into the U.S. His latest piece focuses on recent news of a terrorist plot to assassinate former President George W. Bush— news that in any other time might possibly compel wall-to-wall coverage.
We’ll take a closer look at his recent work and the work of others soon.
Right now, it feels too soon, still.
Have a great morning— we’ll be back soon enough. For now, as always, realize this newsletter and any opinions or errors contained within are entirely our own, and have nothing to do with policy or decisions made at the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office which employs us.