Version 2: Sat, Jun 7, 2025
Reacher was developed by Nick Santora. Santora is undoubtedly a very
creative guy with credits going back to The Sopranos. But he has done
shows such as FBI and Law and Order, and FUBAR, so Reacher is no
surprise.
The series in a jiffy: retired Military Police Officer Jack Reacher
travels around the US confronting criminals. He has no property except
his clothes. He gets help from some of the members of his old team.
There are three main villains in the third season:
- Russian mafia - providing weapons, explosives, etc
- Yemeni terrorists planning attacks in the US
- Quinn, a devious Asian guy, intermediary between Russians and
Yemenis
Russian mafia types and Asian criminals are not new in American TV,
what is new are the Yemeni terrorists. What it is meant here is the
Ansar Allah movement usually referred to as the Houthis by the western
press. By using the name of one of the tribes involved and not the
movement lessens the significance of their effort. Using ‘Yemenis’ in
the show hides the issue under one more layer of mystification for what
for the western press is an Iran proxy, as opposed to a liberation
movement.
Their leader is planning to do some terrorizing but even before the
deal is sealed, he wants to have a good time with his special preference
a redhead who incidentally happens to be drugged. Needless to say the
good guys (and gal) save the day. Reacher rides his bike towards the
sunset. Two points of interest:
- The series manages to have three geopolitical threats weaved in one
narrative even obliquely: Russia, Iran and China
- Reacher acts alone, with a bit of help from old friends. An old
theme in Hollywood to have a hero with no formal organization.
Reacher acts as a defender of the country against the three threats
from overseas, against a mini invasion. Defending a country from
invasion is an old theme (Dodds 2014)
The invasion novel was a historical genre which gained considerable
popularity between the 1870s and 1914. … By 1914, over 400 books had
been published about hypothetical invasions by overseas powers. Their
popularity owes a great deal to the contemporary zeitgeist associated
with Anglo-German rivalries, rearmament, and imperial competition in
Africa and the Mediterranean. Public fears about ‘foreigners’ and German
spy networks grew accordingly.
Reacher comes from this tradition, but there are more ways to do
propaganda and (McMaken 2025) covers British
influence on US and beyond, including going beyond fiction to actually
constructing news and events. We are into the realm of fake news and
false flags.
We have come a long way from Reacher so one last comment: consider
comparing McMaken and the propaganda about the Belgian atrocities of
1914 and the propaganda about October 7: (Winstanley 2024) and (Yusuf 2024); and the British propaganda with
Intrepid against the ‘Isolationists’ before WW2 and the more recent
‘Steele Dossier’ affair (Mate 2021) and (Sperry 2022). History seems to repeat
itself.
(Dodds 2014) Geopolitics: A Very Short
Introduction by Klaus Dodds, Oxford University Press, 2e, 2014
Klaus
Dodds (@klausdodds) “Professor Klaus Dodds is Professor of
Geopolitics and Executive Dean for the School of Life Sciences and
Environment at Royal Holloway, and University lead for environmental
sustainability.”
(McMaken 2025) How War Propaganda Has
Fueled American Foreign Policy for a Century https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-war-propaganda-has-fueled-american-foreign-policy-century
by Ryan McMaken - Mises Wire - May 15, 2025 - Archive https://archive.ph/B8JkI
Ryan McMaken
(@ryanmcmaken) is executive editor at the Mises Institute.
(Winstanley 2024) How Israel killed
hundreds of its own people on 7 October https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-israel-killed-hundreds-its-own-people-7-october/49216
by Asa Winstanley - The Electronic Intifada (@intifada) - 7 October 2024
- Archive https://archive.ph/jw5l6
(Yusuf 2024) ‘Beheaded Babies’ – How UK Media
Reported Israel’s Fake News As Fact: Britain’s national press have been
indispensable allies of Israel throughout its brutal war on Gaza https://www.declassifieduk.org/beheaded-babies-how-uk-media-reported-israels-fake-news-as-fact/
by Hamza Yusuf - 4 January 2024 - Archive https://archive.ph/9qWKE
(Mate 2021) The
Rise and Fall of the ‘Steele Dossier’: A case study in mass hysteria and
media credulity by Aaron Maté - The Nation - January 11, 2021 -
Archive https://archive.ph/5Hk2b
(Sperry 2022) How
the FBI Copied Parts of the Debunked Steele Dossier Directly Into Its
Spy Requests By Paul Sperry, RealClearInvestigations - December 20,
2022 - Archive https://archive.ph/Z5tbh
Started: Fri, Jun 6, 2025
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