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The Cult of 9/11
When Stu Bykofsky, a columnist for The Philadelphia Daily News, wrote a column last week in which he openly hoped that America suffers "another 9/11," he merely had the poor judgment to say what many a right-wing politician and pundit is thinking.
Evidence for this is everywhere: in the fact that Bykofsky was invited to appear on the GOP's unofficial network, Fox News, to "explain" his comments; in the keen disappointment that ripples throughout the right-wing blogosphere every time the collapse of a bridge or a steam pipe explosion turns out not to have been the work of Scary Brown People Who Hate Our Freedoms; and in predictions such as that made by former Sen. Rick Santorum, that the GOP's electoral fortunes will improve as soon as there's another terrorist attack.
Indeed, at this point one can practically see these people wringing their hands in frustration at the apparent inability of "the terrorists" to kill a few Americans somewhere (preferably in a solidly red state, although New York or California would do in a pinch), so as to once again give war a chance.
Bykofsky's column is a nostalgic look back at the days immediately following 9/11, when the nation was unified by fear and anger, and a desire to find and destroy "the enemy." (Typically, Bykofsky doesn't bother to define who "the enemy" is. This spares him the effort of having to consider whether invading a country that had nothing to do 9/11 made any sense.)
Six years later, it's worth looking back on that terrible day with something other than a wistful longing for a repeat performance, in order to recognize a couple of obvious if unpleasant truths.
First, in the weeks immediately following 9/11, a lot of people said and did a great many ridiculous things. This was somewhat understandable under the circumstances. Still, it's important to recognize the cultural forces that made it mandatory to attack the likes of Susan Sontag and Bill Maher (Maher was actually fired for merely pointing out that, whatever else they were, the 9/11 terrorists weren't cowards) helped create a collective atmosphere of national hysteria.
Second, in the years since, we have been encouraged to develop a kind of narcissistic obsession with the events of Sept. 11, 2001 (indeed, the very term "9/11" reflects this.) "9/11" is invoked over and over again, as the day that "changed everything," and that therefore justifies everything from banning toothpaste on airplanes to wholesale spying on Americans without a warrant to torturing people who have been imprisoned for years without trial.
The narcissism at the heart of the Cult of 9/11 is captured by an episode of Larry David's mordant comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm. David meets with a rabbi whose brother-in-law was killed in uptown New York in a bicycle accident on the day of the terror attacks. When at the meeting's end David innocently exclaims "Let's roll," the rabbi is outraged: "You knew my brother-in-law died on Sept. 11! How dare you say something like that!"
A nonplussed David replies, "I didn't realize that if you died uptown it was still part of the tragedy."
The fact is that if you, like me, are one of the 99.9 percent of Americans who doesn't know anyone who was killed or injured in the 9/11 terror attacks, or in the subsequent rescue efforts, then 9/11 was at bottom a very disturbing thing that you saw (over and over again) on TV.
It didn't "change everything," and it didn't (and doesn't) justify the Iraq war, indiscriminate spying on Americans, extrajudicial renditions, torture, or any of the other immoral actions that continue to be done in its name.
It's high time to stop wallowing in our obsession with what is becoming the most overblown and shamelessly exploited event in American history.
Paul Campos is a professor of law at the University of Colorado. He can be reached at paul.campos@colorado.edu.
© 2007 The Rocky Mountain News
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167 Comments so far
Show AllHaving just recently watched the DVD "Loose Change" I'm wondering.....would the Larry Silversteins of this world actually kill 3,000 people for the insurance money on the WTC buildings...?
BMA/Texas
madlib: it is because everything being said is now quite Orwellian. As ascott pointed out, the item that brought me out of my early morning stupor was the crawler on my TV screen informing me that Bush has labelled the Iranian Revoutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Along with his earlier proclamations the last piece is now in place to attack Iran. I hope the significance of this is not lost on the Iranians or any decent human beings left in the U.N.
One of the problems with conspiracy theories (and I'm referring to most of the posts here concerning a neocon conspiracy) is that as long as nothing is absolutely proven "details" and "alternative theories" hatch like a virulent virus to the point that all the theorists come off looking like bona fide nutjobs. Hell, y'all can't even agree an the myriad of scenarios, which proves my point.
Now I agree that the bunch in power is quite capable of doing 9/11 and it is so completely helpful to their real ambitions, but if you are still reasonable people there is no reason to believe that it could not have happened exactly as it appears on the surface. Don't forget that before that date, except for a few experts crying wolf, most of America was asleep in the warm busom of our unchallenged superiority and confident that here at least peaceful law and and order would forever reign. Airport security was lax, most of the foot soldiers of the FBI could not conceive of such a horrendous attack, and air traffic controlers were even less inclined to conceive of this. Our arrogance and our complacence could have worked against us, just as the hijackers hoped.
I may be wrong. Like someone above said I REALLY WISH WE COULD PROVE IT WAS THE NEOCONS, because then at least we would finally and forever be rid of them.
So BuyMoreAmmo,
What would you do for $1.8 billion?
We have a pretty fair idea of what Silverstein would do, but what would the average person do?
In the immortal words of Krusty the Clown, "it's not my fault!!! They drove a dump truck full of cash up to my house!!!"
Peace to you and yours.
The reason for all the conspiracy theories about 9/11 is that Bu$h the inferior and the entire right wing spin machine sold it as more important than anything AND then obstructed any investigation into the event.
They fired no one for incompetence even though several heads should have rolled. Air defense, border security and all the spy guys were either off their game big time or more likely were prevented from doing their job by tons of political nonsense from Bu$h's brain and/or the neocons.
The entire administration is in terror of the truth about 9/11. Makes me wonder some.
9/11 is a direct result of our unconditional support of Israeli atrocities. Sabra, Chatila, Gaza, Lebanon, West Bank etc. That and our own trampling on Islamic holy sites.
I had written to our two Israeli Republican Senators, once and current presidential hopefuls, to stop flying off to Israel at taxpayer expense to cheer Sharon and denigrate Arafat. This was FOR MONTHS before 9/11. And so it goes. 9/11, like Pearl Harbor, was no suprise. A scant score of irate Saudies came as no surpuise either. Everyone can see who controls the American Propaghanda Machine. Eh, Rupert?
It's refreshing to see that the liberals, whose touching faith in either the benevolence or ineptness of the Bushies (Dick Cheney inept? Don't count on it!), or their own secret terror that all might not be so right with capitalism and the U.S. elected-monarchical system, leads them to believe that 9-11 could not have been an inside job, seem to be in the minority on this list.
But remember--Osama Bin Laden got away on horseback. Uh hunh.
They are already exposed. Everyone knows they're guilty.
They know that we know.
-BeingSpied24/7
"Republicans want another terrible terrorist attack in America so they can take complete power."
The absence of anything after the anthrax (remember that?) attack on Democratic members, coupled with the sheer ineptitude of the cover-up, leads me to think that the Fuhrer & Reichsfuhrer really were taken by surprise; but that they (a) knew they had to make people instantly forget that they had had absolutely no interest in acts of domestic terrorism despite Oklahoma City & the original WTC bombing, but had been wholly focused on beefing up Star War and (b) could read the tracks well enough to see that they led inside their own political-social clique.
HAD they been directly responsible, they would've seized on the state of shock & confusion at first to get the whole nation under lock & key, rather than shortsightedly & opportunistically pursue things that they had already planned to do later on. They had no reason to wait for people to be conditioned, when they had the perfect pretext to establish "facts on the ground".
Remember, what was their response on 9/11? THEY RAN LIKE FRIGHTENED BUNNIES.
The exploitation of this event has and continues to be an insult to the lives of those who died that day. This moral crime has been perpetrated for the most part by a man who calls himself a compassionate conservative. The events of that day reek of conspiracy. How did we manage to fail to dispatch any jets to intercept those planes in route to the most populated city in our country when we knew almost an hour before they made impact with the WTC that those planes were way off course? F-16's fly like MACH 2! C'Mon!!!!!!! Something was up. Check out the video "Loose Change 2nd Edition" on google video.
KUCINICH FOR PRESIDENT!!!!!!
"The Cult of 9/11" is an apt title as the commentary here proves out.
"9/11" is now a fear mongering symbol consistently linked by Rupert Murdoch and others, along with "We will never forget" and "Al Qeada", to maintain the chronic fear state. In order to make a small but meaningful dent in the confusion and fear provoking common usage of "9/11" I suggest using 9/11/01 or September 11, 2001 to put the events of that day (regardless of the actual perpetrators) in a historical perspective as opposed to the vast generalized abstraction the term 911 now engenders to the benefit of the neocons.
They want another 9/11!?
Well hold onto your hats people...
I am sure this "False Flag Event" Fascist, War-Profiteering,
"New World Order" Agenda loving Regime will create another event just like 9/11. to gain a death grip on our Freedoms under the guise of protection using the Homeland Security, Patriot Act ..Blah Blah Blah...
I commend you Mr. Campos for writing the truth and not being just another media whore controlled by our Uber Corporate State Government.
Big Brother just got smacked by his feisty little brother!
Nice Work now kick him in his nuts and lets get more real writing like this.
How about a Terror Scenario?
I couldn't get through all 101 posts (Whew! That was the count at the time of this writing) but I caught enough to see a lot of you are onto the value 9/11 had for Bush, the NeoCons and their Agenda. Even though GW was politically "on the ropes" as of C.O.B. September 10th - as was Guilianni - I won't go so far as to believe that 9/11 was instigated by the US to forward the Rightist agenda. (I work a lot in the Middle East and of course everyone here believes it was.)
I have a more logical and therefore greater fear: Another attack, which is likely to happen before the 2008 elections will put Rudy in the lead and will pull Karl Rove out of "spending time with his family" just in time to pull the Neo-Cons back into the game and the White House.
I don't even think they'd have to do it themselves. Bin Laden is a pretty smart guy (hey will that get ME fired?) He knows that "effective" terrorism forces countries to restrict freedoms and persecute their own (Arab) citizens. He's played Bush and Cheney like a string section thus far (see: US Constitution c. 2007, Extraordinary Rendition, Torture, Habeus Corpus, Abu Grabe, etc.)
Rudy is a huge weenie and will probably declare martial law (After we elect him Prez)
This is a real. This could happen.
We have to become one coalition movement ... fast!
madlib,
Welcome to the quagmire "Catch-22"
Perhaps they won't even wait.
While you're arguing over whether Bush et al. perpetrated or passively allowed the attack, they've decided to ratchet up the rhetoric on Iran:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/15/world/middleeast/15diplo.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
"U.S. Weighing Terrorist Label for Iran Guards"
"While you're arguing over whether Bush et al. perpetrated or passively allowed the attack, they've decided to ratchet up the rhetoric on Iran"
Perhaps to 'bridge' the gap for the final push, a major attack on/near a well-known large bridge would be perpetrated or 'passively allowed' by Bush et al. Just consider the recent collapses of bridges all over the place.
-BeingSpied24/7
Joecommon,
Indeed. Other scenarios may come to mind, as well.
My point is, at least as much attention must be paid to what is going on in the present and what it all may bode for the future.
(Why the quotation marks?)
I don't get it.
Are we saying this:
1. If terrorists succeed in attacking the US, then conservatives win even if it happens on their watch?
2. If terrorist don't succeed in attacking the US, then they win because they must have helped prevent it?
HOW CAN IT BE BOTH WAYS???
If the U.S. is in a "war," and if the "war" was started by hijackers on 9/11, why aren't there military police on airplanes? It seems we need protection here at home (from our government). Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and the Bush-Cheney Crime Syndicate knows it, but they'd like us all to believe it. Reinforcing cockpit doors to make them impenetrable as another poster suggested would also help.
Wars are held between nations. **No foreign country attacked us on 9/11.** I guess the Bush-Cheney Crime Syndicate couldn't steal Iraqi (or Iranian) planes to use on 9/11 so they could blame them, so they had to settle for commercial ones.
911 and everything after(and the rigged black box voting before) was planned long before the towers fell.
This was just an excuse to put into play the endgame that Neo Cons/Right wing nutjobs have been drooling over while jacked up on coffee and comic books in the their think tanks.
It will only get worse, much worse.
"Why it is that we tend to fixate on single explosive events, I don't know."
The material on brain function in Gore's "The Assault on Reason" is helpful here.
"The official 9/11 story has become like a religious myth and anyone who dares to question it is a heretic. Remember Condi testilying that noone could imagine hijackers flying planes into buildings?"
Watching the jets coming in for landing while waiting for the bus home from work, I constantly wondered, from the late '90s, when someone would take advantage of lax security and steer one into the nearby skyscrapers. So this "We NEVER imagined" thing was utter nonsense.
I doubt that the either the Fuhrer or Reichsfuhrer knew in advance, but probably recognized rather quickly that the thing could've been pulled off only by someone who knew about the war games that morning, someone who had put-orders on airline stocks, and a lot of clout in their cicles, both official & unofficial. Remember, they paid absolutely NO attention to the possibility of strikes at targets in the US, even though they'd been briefed on the Millennium plot.
Had they planned it, they would've followed up rapidly with other 'attacks' & sealed the job of martial law right then & there, cutting off all resistance from the start.
Like most common criminals, these are very short-sighted people who act opportunistically & smash & grab as they go. Had they had the farsightedness required for a pre-conceived program, they would've acted much more efficiently & with far fewer blatant gaffes in the subsequent years.
Meanwhile, the 9/11 mantra is the sign of cultic devotion which is a mark of Apocalyptic Americanism, with America always acting with vast redemptive violence after being provoked by an attack on its holy innocence.
A terror attack on the US rates a 10 on a scale of 1-10. An attack on another "white person" country maybe a five if they speak English and a three if not. Foreign countries with brown people who speak a language other than English don't make the scale unless perhaps there are a few US tourists there. 9/11 indeed.
Back to the original question that his thread raises, the fact is that the right wing is indeed praying for another "terror" incident in the US to turn the tide against the Democrats. All one has to do is read the posts in the "Town Hall" blog and you will constantly see this theme among the right. An attack will "unite" the American people again, and build support for "staying the course" in Iraq as well as military action against Iran.
A strong case can be made that Bin Laden's intervention helped Bush in 2004. There is no doubt that Al Qaeda wants Bush and his successors in power, so why not look for another "October surprise"?
Bush allowed 9/11 to happen by ignoring al Qaeda, he did not even investigate the bombing of the USS Kole by al Qaeda which would have led him to Afghanistan long before 9/11 happened.
To take advantage of your own incompetence and ignorance to fear monger and grab power is disgusting. He should have run out of office long before the 2004 election.
No less stupid than the leftist professor calling for a "thousand Mogadishus".
"It didn't "change everything," and it didn't (and doesn't) justify the Iraq war, indiscriminate spying on Americans, extrajudicial renditions, torture, or any of the other immoral actions that continue to be done in its name."
"It's high time to stop wallowing in our obsession with what is becoming the most overblown and shamelessly exploited event in American history."
I wish it were I that wrote what the professor has written. The sun still goes round and 'round and the grass still grows on the hillside. 'It,' didn't change much except for to light a fear and not a fire under the country's ass. I sure as hell don't want another exhibition of incompetence and cowardice and I'm yet to read "My Pet Goat," Still the moon still rises and sets … funny how that works.
Thank you Professor.
I'm sure you know the Bush administration was going to attack Iraq whether or not 9/11 happened.
Please remember this: prior to the Bush Administration creating this insanely horrific Orwellian,"War on Terror" from 1960-2001 (including 9/11) less than 6000 people WORLDWIDE had died in terrorist attacks. I would guess that is less than the number of people that drowned in their bathtubs.
The financial benefits for this war are many and destroying the constitution is simply a side-benefit for the Bush administration. The beauty of a "War on Terror" is by definition it will be never ending.
Welcome to the brave new world!
Bush happened to be president during the time disaster struck America. This is shown again and again by the Republicans as an example of 'leadership'. But what did Bush exactly do ?
Any other 'president' could have done what he did and in most cases even much better. Even a bag of potatoes could have displayed 'leadership'.
First of all, Bush did not prevent the attacks from happening. This in itself is a weakness, since the strategic use of 'intelligence' is the most important aspect in the battle against terrorism. Bush was the first president since the second world war to allow a terrorist attack to happen, while certainly there have been many attempts even before he came around. And then later on we hear about the intelligence information that many other countries shared with the U.S. government about the coming attacks....
He obstructed the formation of the 9/11 Commission and a serious investigation into the disaster only happened a year after the fact. This is in sharp contrast to the investigations into the murder on Kennedy or the sex scandals of Clinton, when money for serious investigations became available all at once.
The shameless exploitation of 9/11 for the Republican spin machine and for the elections raises the suspicion that the Republicans indeed have an interest to keep terrorism alive and on the agenda. The little efforts they have made to actually capture Osama bin Laden once again emphasize that.
I do indeed think that rational people, except the ones that are extremely wealthy, have no interest in voting for the Republican Party, because that party will never to anything for the 'common man on the street', except 'protecting against terrorists'.
So the Republicans have an interest in keeping the people in perpetual fear.
It's high time to stop wallowing in our obsession with what is becoming the most overblown and shamelessly exploited event in American history.
You mean, even more so than December 7, 1941?
Ok you know what!!!!!
I'm going to come out and say what most of us who have seen documentaries, read books, or did research on this topic. Or have just been able to see past the Gov't propaganda. Notice I said Gov't propaganda and not right-wing propaganda. We have to wake up and understand that there are a total of maybe 10 people in Washington that doesn't help forward the same agenda. Left or Right. Maybe there might be 10 people who are not Ivy League, Freemason, skull and bones, corporate death machines that profit off of pain and suffering all over the world.
We know that 9/11 was supposed to happen, we know this. We know that the towers were supposed to and ensured to fall. We know that all most every law past and every executive order put in place since our country was founded has been to forward the agenda. This has been in place since before we were even a free country.
Every person in congress has done a little more to help move it along. I don't even know where to start, maybe with the crappy health care system that Nixon was aware of. He has been recorded saying that he thought the idea of a health care system where insurance companies and health care providers were paid more for helping few people, would be the best system for us.
(Even though in France, Doctors are paid extremely well for the more people they help and lives they save.)
Capitalism, Abortion, Gay rights, Civil Union, Discrimination, Corporate tax breaks, Tax cuts for the rich, Cutting education funding, Social funding, a crappy welfare safety net, Liquor stores in poor neighbor hoods, ALL THE DAMN GUNS on the streets, crack cocaine, the horrible foster care system, the poison in our food, High fructose corn syrup, Trans fat, Some how Cigarettes are still legal, No child left behind, tricking people in to thinking you cant be Pro life and Pro choice. Making people think that if two men or women the world will come to an end.
Wire tapping, extraordinary rendition, torture, executive orders, the absolute rape of Africa, the rape of the ozone, the rape of our children, the rape of our rights and constitution, unfair taxation, over working the people and under paying them. Never supplying a living wage to the poor, making people think they plan to do something about illegal immigration? This country would shut down, because giant corps are never going to give up cheap labor. The fact that we arm damn near everyone in the world with weapons, Slave labor, outsourcing, Alphabet killers, CIA, FBI, WTO, NSA, UN. "The Great Test" that was Katrina. The damn list goes on and on. And I didn't even go back before World War II.
This is getting old and getting old fast. Some just make it end because I can't reach out and educate every person I come in contact with. It's so damn frustrating that I know that in 10 years my and my child's life with be controlled by a Military that walks our own streets. And no one see's it.
Trust me, a random event will happen and we will fall for it again. We will attack Iran, and then finally we will get what we deserve. 50 years of hardship and pain. We will have lost everything that we know, we will kill for food and water we will whore ourselves out for clean air. And if you hadn't applied for a passport 4 years ago good luck because you will never leave this country for martial law will be an every present reality.
Thank you for your time
~Future~
Like the Reichstag Fire, 9/11 was a too convenient tool for a pre-planned aggression. Like the bumbling hubris-driven monstrosity of German Fascism, this idiotic remake will be short-lived.
While some see "the days immediately following 9/11, when the nation was unified by fear and anger, and a desire to find and destroy "the enemy." Others of us remember feeling suspicious and dreading the response. I remember asking, "who benefits by this?"
Following the logic that we should not worry about a terrorist attack because "only 6000 people have been killed worldwide in terrorist attacks" we should have quit worrying about lynchings back in the 1920's because ONLY 50 or so blacks a year were being killed. Yet we, rightly, passed laws and enforced laws to see that it was stopped. Enforce the laws that we have now ( half the 9/11 attackers were on expired visas) Don't obsess about 9/11 but don't act like it was nothing to worry about.
I have an assitant named Serge and I can tell you he really is working. Like he said all he needed was some time! Serge this lemonade is delicious!
Can't he be carted off for saying that? Isn't that part of our national defense strategy?
Well said Mr. Campos. It's as if Rove, Cheney and Rumsfeld sat around the table with a PR/marketing strategist as Georgie Porgie was off in a corner in the room playing with his tinker toys as they dreamt up how to get the ball rolling in Iraq. I'm not a conspiracy theorist or anything, but 9/11 is a very useful date which creates the idea of fear, panic, red alerts, and tragedy. Some people can't even remember Pearl Harbor's exact date. But everyone will remember 9/11 thanks to the shrewd marketing of a corporate GOP bent on creating a war in a country not even close to being responsible for the American attacks.
70 years ago, INDUSTRIAL HEMP was banned. Had we been using that for fuel instead of CRUDE oil aka petroleum, this country and the planet would have saved itself all the terrorist troubles in the first place !
I understand why the Repugs are hoping for another attack. What I don't understand is why a large percentage of the population still thinks the Bush admin had nothing to do with it. If they think another one is needed they will simply order one up...
the problem is they don't need one their base is scared shitless and the dufus Democratic leadership is no threat.
So please welcome your next POTUS Rudy Guillini......don't think it will happen???
Remember you heard it first here.
"Stu" must be short for stupedndously STUpid. OK STUpid you feel you are immune? Would you be whistling (from the grave) the same tune if you had your face removed by a suicide bomb blast? Or maybe you might be there in the beyond to explain to your grandchild why an enraged Iraqi just blew up a Public Library in Philadelphia and ended their short life?
The ultra-right is really scraping the bottom of the barrel if a jerk like this can get air time.
9/11 has become the Great Pumpkin of the United States--the only question left is how many of us are as gullible as Liunis?
So we lost 3,000 people on 9/11 and we have successfully managed to turn that into the complete and utter destruction of Iraq with at least 100,000 dead and still counting not to mention the millions of refugees spread all over the middle east. I can't understand why these people don't like us.
The article still supposes that 9/11 was done by foreign "terrorists". Logic and unanswered questions can only lead one to conclude that it was an inside job. Americans should be very scared that Republicans are so desperate for approval that they are almost wishing that another terrorist attack will happen. How warped is that? Even if the Democrats were on the verge of extinction, I would never wish something bad to happen to our country to bring the party back from near death.
I'm worried that Rove is cooking up an event more horrific than the events of 9/11. Something's fishy...especially since he's leaving at the end of August. September, as we well know, is the month when the Bush administration rolls out its new agenda, complete with a propaganda war on the American public. Something rotten is in the air. Never trust a desperate and wounded animal that is cornered. That's when it's the most dangerous.
The executive orders being issued in recent months are truly disturbing along these lines. Check out an article at http://www.realitysandwich.com/node/362 that shows just how fragile our democracy has become.
My suggestion in regard to this issue would be that every person in the US who is capable of reading read the history of the events that followed the Reichstag Fire (1933, Berlin).
You will begin to notice how much has not been learned from history, and consequently repeated.
Goosestep Practice at 4 p.m. in the gymnasium....
9/11 was a smoke and mirrors caper from start to finish. And YOU fell for it.
Get over your wounded pride and inform yourself about how the world works--and has worked--and will work in the future if there is in fact a future.
Alman: "No less stupid than the leftist professor calling for a 'thousand Mogadishus'."
Of course that's true. However, one leftist professor is very different from the 25% or so of the population that seems to worship death, whether in hoping for war or terrorism (as in the case of this article), or in awaiting the Rapture in which we'll all be dead and only the most bitter Christians will go to heaven. One leftist professor can say something crazy but his/her students can weigh that against everything else they know. One leftist professor is not determining national policy. The GOP wins if we get struck again, just as Bush won the megafortune on 9/11. That says something louder than any leftist professor can shout.
alman correctly points out that terrorism is a concern, maybe to some more than others, but a concern nonetheless.
What alman fails to recognize is that the deaths of 6,000 people pales in comparison to some of the worlds truly horrendous problems that don't receive even an 1/8th the attention or funds that terrorism does. In a world of, what, 6 billion (?) people, the deaths of 6,000 really is small potatoes when compared to the 4 MILLION people that have been killed, wounded or made homeless in the American act of genocidal revenge in Iraq.
Most Americans don't know why Usama attacked the Trade Centers or what the American response was to Usama's demands following that attack. Many wrongfully believe that we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq to "right the wrongs," but that isn't all that happened. Many questions remain unanswered nearly 6 years later and many more remain UNASKED.
It is my desire that Americans ask "why?" I hope that alman will. I hope that you will too.
Peace to you and yours.
Great article I agree, with most everything except I do not believe it went quite far enough, may I.
The MSM propaganda machine going along with the Bush administration aided by the Republican congress created this Orwellian/phony War. The Bush administration was going to attack Iraq, period.
Look, six years ago four airplanes were hijacked and crashed; three were flown into the office buildings. This was a tragedy which was not prevented by the top-notch security systems in place at the time. I'm confident they had encountered and prevented a number of horrific attacks in the past.
Terror attacks regrettably happen world-wide. I believe attacks have occurred in Spain, France, Japan and many if not most other nations of the world, including our own.
A reasonable response from our nation would have been to reinforce the Cockpit doors, lock them with deadbolts and write a procedure to keep them closed during flight. This would have been the only additional security necessary and would have prevented similar hijackings from occurring in the future. I'm not sure how checking ID four times, posting the color Mango and spending hours in line makes me safer. It does however reinforce the Bush Administrations Orwellian terror threat.
Next gather our CIA/FBI type organizations with the help of our military intelligence forces find out who was responsible and bring them to justice. I'm sure the majority of the world would have provided the needed intelligence and support. This situation would have been over and similar attacks would have been prevented. This could have all been accomplished with very little cost and loss of life. We could have built world wide information ties to help protect ourselves and our allies from future attacks. Even if the attackers were not captured, we would have made this world a safer place for ourselves and our allies.
Instead the Bush administration aided by the Republican lead congress decided to create this horrific never-ending Orwellian War causing the destruction of millions of lives and wasting trillions of dollars of the American taxpayers' money on the Halliburton/KBR/Backwater type organizations. For what?
Please remember this: prior to the Bush Administration creating this insanely horrific,"War on Terror" from 1960-2001 (including 9/11) less than 6000 people WORLDWIDE had died in terrorist attacks. I would guess that is less than the number of people that drowned in their bathtubs. So maybe next the Bush Administration abetted by the MSM will declare war on bath water….ps it would be good prudent to get out of the tub prior to the "Shock and Awe" attack.
The really sad part of all of this is that I now believe the intent from the start was simply to create world-wide terror not prevent it. Which would explain the tortures, secret prison, human rights violations and many of the other actions these criminals have perpetrated.
9/11 had alot more to do than just an invasion of Iraq. Unocal pipeline in Afghanistan. Haifa 1, 2 & 3 in Iraq - oil pipelines. WTC Gold and silver. Destruction of evidence in insider trading and fraud WTC-7. Some dumbasses who knew, placed large put-options on United, and American airlines. Looting of the Iraqi treasury. Cover-up in the "Oil for Food program". Anthrax etc etc....
George Bush junior had nothing to do with 9/11, he just let it happen as ordered to do so! The mastermind of 9/11 was none other than the ex-CIA director George Bush #41.
The only other thing I know is that folders with crazy lined borders should not be left laying about at fast food restaurants.
Coffeeelover,,,,,,,,,
Future - your list of grievances against our government are over flowing and oh too true. Imagine a parent putting these restrictions on their child. Would the child feel loved?
My point is that we are expendable to THIS ADMINISTRATION! When will everyone get that?
Lushy had their facts exactly right.
Sansego - I'm very scared of Rove too!
Moonraven - if you don't know why countries around the world hate America, you haven't read John Perkins book Confessions of An Economic Hit Man; nor have you seen the documentary The Money Masters.
To stop funding the war, go to We The People Foundation to learn how to stop paying your income taxes, which are illegally collected - go to Freedom to Fascism.
All the information you need is on the internet, just hunt for it. Click on links within those sites. Google G. Edward Griffin for more info. on why everyone hates the USA,
I'm applying for my passport fast!
9/11 was an inside job.
Oh, obviously. This administration, inept in SO MANY DIFFERENT WAYS, could plan and keep secret something like 9/11. Geez.
I have got news for you. I SAW A PLANE HIT THE PENTAGON. So did several other people in my office.
Fear is a powerful motivator.
The filth Riech bushcon team has exploited it to the max. 911 is all the republican'ts can point to as their "accomplishment" since seizing power in 2000. And all the right wing wanna-be presidentials have the mantra memorized.
America sickens me