Second, one might wonder just how stupid all the folks in the military and government would have to be not to “compute the odds of succeeding from this point forward and then decide if the investment warrants the potential payoff.” As one who has followed the details of the news available to citizens during this conflict, it certainly appears that such risk/reward equations are being considered. Bias exists, of course. But we must assume that these biases exist for both sides of any argument.

In fact, we would expect that these biases even effect scientists.

First, as a teenage child of an MIA from the Vietnam war, I became disillusioned with the U.S. military, and with war, in general. “Lies were told” to the American populace, in the name of “national security”. Similar lies continue to this day, for the same alleged reason. If more politicians believed in resolving their cognitive dissonance about mistakes by telling the truth, the American people would probably experience a great increase in their faith toward the U.S. government.

Secondly, as a psychology professional, I watched myself and others deal with cognitive dissonance by strengthening weak arguments. It is a cowardly and a weak strategy, but it assists professionals in “getting through the day”. I encourage the day when we in our culture face our weaknesses, admit them, and cope with the results–rather than bolstering our weakness and fears with false arguments made stronger by increasing lies.

It looks to me like we are punishing religious moral taboos against self-pleasuring but pretending we are protecting health and safety. The fact that we are doing vastly more damage to rule of law, international relations, our economy, civil rights and individuals than we are gaining through protecting anything seems like cognitive dissonance to me. How can we be both the world leader in freedom and liberty and arrest 840,000 pot users each year?

That this has gone on for decades but has seen otherwise responsible skeptics and scientists look the other way makes me think they are afraid to confront this dangerous abuse of power and influence from religious sources.

I’ve watched this for more than 35 years and, as a skeptic and student of the sciences I am increasingly alarmed and disgusted. Please address this subject? It is an international disaster.

Your reader,

Hank