Two Submarine Connections Looking and Sounding Great, But ...

A popular notion states that perception is reality. If this equation were true, camouflage would suffice for just about everything. Hollywood alone could muster our stragic deterrence and defense capabilities. In the real world, substance will always trump perception in the end.

In the worlds of entertainment, proaganda, and public relations, however, perception is reality as long as the perception may last.

Two examples (you decide from which of those three worlds they come):

10 June 2008: Quick, Commodore, Qualify!

The prince, who is on a two-month attachment with the Royal Navy and is Commodore in Chief of Submarines will visit the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, Hampshire, where he will officially open the memorial. The area of remembrance lists the names of the 5,300 submariners who have died while in service between 1904 and the present day. Sub-Lieutenant Wales, who is currently on a two-month attachment with the Navy, will also get a chance to see the Royal Navy's first ever submarine, the Holland 1, as well as tour a Second World War submarine, HMS Alliance. [Ed. Obviously a ceremonial posting for a memorial - ugh, the irony of contrasts.]

Next , you may remember an attractive lawyer who said,

What do a nuclear submarine off the coast of Venezuela and a bunch of NGOs have in common? Why, US intervention in Venezuela, of course!!

At the time, Vigilis responded to her (see 3rd comment). Now, she is at it again:

The Fourth Fleet of the Navy has already been activated, something not seen since World War II, and will be patrolling and coordinating military activity in the Latin American region.

and,

The US Government is waging war on Venezuela - not your typical, traditional war, but a modern, asymmetric - 4th Generation War -against President Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution. ... 26 October: A US nuclear submarine arrives in Curazao to presumably engage in espionage

This time, only comments from her alleged team members are accepted, however. Otherwise, I would ask why she glosses over disturbing facts. Her actual words: Groups like Human Rights Watch, Inter-American Press Association, Reporters without Borders accuse Venezuela of violating human rights and freedom of expression. The CIA Factbook actually tells us:

current situation: Venezuela is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor; women and children from Colombia, China, Peru, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic are trafficked to and through Venezuela and subjected to commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor; Venezuelans are trafficked internally and to Western Europe, particularly Spain and the Netherlands, and to countries in the Caribbean region for commercial sexual exploitation; Venezuela is a transit country for illegal migrants from other countries in the region and for Asian nationals, some of whom are believed to be
trafficking victims

Watch her April 20, 2008 address at Howard University Washington, D.C.:




Of the propaganda and PR world, slick lawyer work, if you can get it...