Rev. Wright is right about one thing - we brought 9/11 on ourselves

[Hugabear]

Although I'm still open to the possibility that this may have been an inside job, I'll just go with the assumption that 9/11 was committed by a small handful of radical Islamic militants. Now why is there so much anger among the Islamic and Arab world towards us? What would prompt a group of people to plan and carry out such an operation?

Sorry, but the notion that they "hate us for our freedom" is pure BULLSHIT. They hate us because we have been meddling in THEIR affairs for decades. We used them as pawns during the Cold War. We never gave a shit about them, we just wanted to use them as a buffer against the Soviet Union. More importantly, however, we wanted their oil, and we wanted to make sure that the evil Russkies didn't get their hands on it.

So we did what we do best. We pitted factions against each other. We pitted brother against brother. If country A was in the Soviet camp, then we'd go after Country B to counter that. We'd encourage strife in any Soviet Arab or Islamic ally. There is no better example of this than Afghanistan. We trained and armed the mujahideen to fight against the Soviets. After they were victorious and the Soviets were gone, we dropped them like an ugly prom date (a quite fitting analogy, IMHO). We didn't really want anything to do with them - after all, they were a bunch of dirty cave-dwelling savages who worshiped Allah, and they didn't have oil to give us. They see how we allowed people in other countries around Africa and the Middle East to wallow in their misery. Whereas countries like Saudi Arabia, as long as they're providing us with a steady stream of oil, we treat them like our best friends. But they know that if SA's oil fields dried up, that we'd leave them in a heartbeat also.

They have also witnessed how we've stood behind Israel no matter what atrocities Israel commits against the Palestinian people. They've watched us ignore, and in many cases even defend, Israel's "Untouchables" mentality - kill one of us, we'll kill ten or a hundred of theirs. They've watched as Israel launched military attacks into heavily populated civilian areas, killing innocent children, as we sat by and did nothing.

How can you have all of this occur and NOT expect a response like 9/11? While I don't justify the attack, I can certainly understand their desire to lash out at the United States, and do so in a way that makes a huge statement.

[C_U_L8R]

1. he looks funny, he sounds funny and he has a poor choice of words

but many of the points the pastor was making are the same ideas
I've heard discussed by many DUers here over the years.
I've heard lots of people here say Goddamn America out of disgust
whether it was about Iraq or Katrina or Wiretapping or Stolen Elections or The Supreme Court or
just about any issue. And all this fretting about a dotty old pastor who
looks funny, sounds funny and says things rather provocatively is pretty ridiculous.

Y'know what.. Goddamn America for stooping so low.. and Goddamn DU even more
for letting it happen in here. I thought we were better than that.

[Hugabear]

4. But he didn't say Goddamn America

He said God damn America, as opposed to God bless America.

Small point, but it does make a difference in judging the context.

[C_U_L8R]

7. Well God Damn America

and God Damn DU

[CJCRANE]

2. 9/11 was facilitated blowback.

The motive for the mujahideen to attack America for revenge was genuine...what Bin Laden didn't realise was that the neocons had an even stronger motive to allow/help the attack to happen.

[NNN0LHI]

3. That will make a great campaign slogan

NOT!

Don

[Hugabear]

5. I'm sure we could find idiotic statements for anyone

It's not as if Obama said this, and in fact Obama has denounced the statement. But honestly, if you really wanted to, you could dig around and find something like that for just about anyone. Hell, with McCain you don't even have to go that far - Hagee offers up shit like that on a regular basis.

[madrchsod]

9. i`m sure the obama team is all ready preparing

their hits on johnny when the shit starts hitting the fan...hillary has no room to talk ,she has some fundies hiding in her closet

[KharmaTrain]

6. Damn Speaking The Truth...

The most glaring hypocrisy in light of Wright's statement is that I don't see it anyone bringing up the Falwell/Robertson statements condemning gays for 9/11. I've heard several "preachers" say that 9/11 happened cause this country was "godless". But when it's a fat old white guy saying it, that's fine...but if it comes out of a black man, then it's obviously offensive.

The dirty truth that many of us here know...the unspoken, but undeniable truth is that this country DID bring 9/11 onto itself. The decades of meddling in the internal affairs and culture of that part of the world has created the distrust and the exploitation of resources and propping up of unpopular authoritarian regimes didn't help either. Mix it up with not just the support of Israel (which does have a big place), but also how this country has stood on the wrong side of most popular movements in that part of the world, and we're just starting to tap into the mindset that easily led 19 people to want to fly planes into buildings.

It's not only the Palestinians, but this regime stands behind repression in Algeria (that carnage still goes on and no one hears a thing...thousands have been slaughtered), Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Discussing the basic causes are taboo and it exposes that this country...specifically the large corporations and their greed...was the root of much of the hatred on the "Arab Street".

Those who want to only blame Israel also need to remove their blinders and take a wider look. Sadly, this country can't face itself in the mirror here and anyone who dares to bring it and tries to get a big picture view is shouted down.

[leftynyc]

18. The truth is that the Fallwell/Robertson

statement caused such an outcry that they apologized for it within a couple of days. The fact is that anyone who wants to blame this country for 9/11 is playing right into the hands of the right wing attack on Sen Obama's patriotism. This is a real problem and needs to be addressed now.

[Echo In Light]

8. Inside job, unless PROVEN otherwise. Thus far, it's a no-show. Re-investigate!

[CJCRANE]

11. Yes. Bush-Cheney brought 9/11 on America.

Whether it was LIHOP or MIHOP, it amounts to pretty much the same thing.

An attack that was "permitted" to happen (in Bush's own words).

[Echo In Light]

16. One always looks to who stands to benefit the most from a crime: US govt NEEDED it to happen

You can delve into the PNAC, the numerous, comprehensive list of cover ups and anomalies, the smoking guns of Iran/Contra REX84, the collapse of the Soviets, access to oil/resources ... when really, if you just consider the ongoing National Security State ruse, an Official Enemy is always required for the PR campaign/propaganda effort to sell the populace a movie script version/justification for "war" which, like all U.S. "wars" on this, that, or the other, is phony bologna - a cover story to keep the military-industrial complex profitable, keep the War Pigs War Machine going, and further implement police state measures for our own good.

[Saturday]

10. The relatives of the people who died on 9/11 don't want to be told

that the victims are the reason. You'll get no where with that one.

[Hugabear]

14. Nobody is blaming the victims

Saying that the United States brought 9/11 on itself isn't the same as blaming the individual victims who died that day. The people themselves weren't the target, the target was the United States as a whole.

[stillcool]

32. The victims meaning the ...

people of the Middle-east?

[MonkeyFunk]

12. I didn't like that argument when Robertson and Falwell made it

and I don't like it any more when Wright makes it.

The victims didn't "bring this on themselves".

[Hugabear]

15. You're comparing apples and oranges

Robertson and Falwell blamed homosexuals for natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

The United States has done much to create the climate of hatred towards us around the globe. We've played an active role in creating this hatred. We've been trying to impose our will upon the rest of the world, so it shouldn't be a surprise when someone lashes out at us.

[MonkeyFunk]

17. No, it's the same argument

the subgroup getting the blame is the only difference.

I think it's a shitty argument no matter who makes it.

[Hugabear]

20. Do you believe they hate us for our freedom?

Do you believe the RW talking points, that they want to establish a worldwide Islamic caliphate?

Do you believe that if the United States hadn't been interfering in their affairs for the past few decades, that this would have happened anyways?

Homosexuals have had nothing to do with natural disasters. I'm not talking about a "subgroup", I'm talking about the United States as a whole. If one country pushes and bullies another country or group of people long enough, do you not expect that group of people to retaliate?

[MonkeyFunk]

21. Don't be ridiculous

You think the only alternative to "we brought it on ourselves" is "they hate us for our freedom"? How absurd.

[Hugabear]

22. Honestly - why DID they do it?

There's always a reason for something, even if we don't want to hear it.

If it's not because of their hatred for our freedom, and if it's not in response for our own actions, then what was the reasoning behind 9/11?

[Echo In Light]

26. Continuation of the National Security State ruse/War Machine profitable/Draconian domestic measures

[leftynyc]

19. That distinction is meaningless

to the swing voters. They don't want to hear that we brought it on ourselves.

[Tarc]

13. Kid, when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging

The blame for 9/11 cannot be parsed or hedged or laid on anyone else's head but the ones that perpetrated the act. This is a losing argument you're making here.

[Balbus]

23. Yep. And women who wear suggestive or skimpy clothing bring rape upon themselves....

Right? :shrug:

[Echo In Light]

27. I don't hold to the "blowback" theory, but objectively, it's not on par with what you've suggested

Major differences between people who don't like American govt for decades worth of atrocities carried out around the world, and people who "blame the victim" i.e. raped due to what the person was wearing

[Hugabear]

29. Please, that is a ridiculous comparison

A woman who wears suggestive clothing isn't victimizing anyone.

The United States as a country has been victimizing other people for decades. How many people have DIED because of our policies over the past 60 years?

A better comparison would be a woman who is being attacked looking for anything she can grab ahold of, grabbing a screwdriver, and stabbing her attacker with it.

[aikoaiko]

24. Its true that the US was not selected randomy for the 9/11 attacks, but saying we brought it on

or we deserved it is just ridiculous.

[Tyler Durden]

30. Ridiculous, or Political Suicide.

Don't chose ONE. Both are on the same choice.

[stillcool]

35. Ridiculous?

published in 2000

excerpts from the book
Blowback
The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
by Chalmers Johnson
Henry Holt, 2000

p8
The term "blowback," which officials of the Central Intelligence Agency first invented for their own internal use, is starting to circulate among students of international relations. It refers to the unintended consequences of policies that were kept secret from the American people. What the daily press reports as the malign acts of "terrorists" or "drug lords" or "rogue states" or "illegal arms merchants" often turn out to be blowback from earlier American operations.
p9
One man's terrorist is, of course, another man's freedom fighter, and what U.S. officials denounce as unprovoked terrorist attacks on its innocent citizens are often meant as retaliation for previous American imperial actions. Terrorists attack innocent and undefended American targets precisely because American soldiers and sailors firing cruise missiles from ships at sea or sitting in B-52 bombers at extremely high altitudes or supporting brutal and repressive regimes from Washington seem invulnerable. As members of the Defense Science Board wrote in a 1997 report to the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and technology, "Historical data show a strong correlation between U.S. involvement in international situations and an increase in terrorist attacks against the United States. In addition, the military asymmetry that denies nation states the ability to engage in overt attacks against the United States drives the use of transnational actors ."
The most direct and obvious form of blowback often occurs when the victims fight back after a secret American bombing, or a U.S.-sponsored campaign of state terrorism, or a ClA-engineered overthrow of a foreign political leader. All around the world today, it is possible to see the groundwork being laid for future forms of blowback. For example, is estimated that from the Gulf War of 1991 through 1998, the U.S.
p12
-----------------------------------------
Terrorism(by definition)strikes at the innocent in order to draw attention to the sins of the invulnerable. The innocent of the twenty-first century are going to harvest unexpected blowback disasters from the imperialist escapades of recent decades. Although most Americans may be largely ignorant of what was, and still is, being done in their names, all are likely to pay a steep price-individually and collectively-for their nation's continued efforts to dominate the global scene. Before the damage of heedless triumphalist acts and the triumphalist rhetoric and propaganda that goes with them becomes irreversible, it is important to open a new discussion of our global role during and after the Cold War...


http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blowback_CJohnson/Blowback_BCJ.html

[dysfunctional press]

48. why is it "just ridiculous" to say that we brought it on ourselves...

due to our actions in the region for many many years?

or do "they" REALLY just "hate us for our freedoms"...? :shrug:

if we didn't bring it on ourselves, then what WAS the reason(s) behind it?

[aikoaiko]

54. I believe that it was the slow death of Islamic fundamentalism and threats to it that

motivated international Islamic terrorism. Fighting "American imperialism" and "the West" is just a convenient way of rallying in-group membership. The more retaliatory actions they can provoke, the more people flock to the religious freaks.

[coalition_unwilling]

62. "The slow death of Islamic fundamentalism and threats to it"? Upon

what evidence do you base that statement?

Even if you simply take bin Laden's purported acceptance of responsibility for 9-11 at face value, you will see bin Laden states that there were 4 principal reasons for the attacks of 9-11:

1) U.S. support for corrupt and oppressive Arab regimes
2) U.S. stationing of its soliders on Islamic holy land
3) U.S. support for Israel
4) U.S. support for economic sanctions against Iraq (that resulted in deaths of over 1,000,000 Iraqi civilians, including some 500,000 Iraqi children)

All 4 of these reasons are eminently reasonable and are fully supported by the historical record, for what it's worth.

Instead, you violate Occam's Razor by trying to spin a complex theory that does not take into account the stated motivations of the alleged perpetrators.

[stillcool]

25. Cause and effect....

reap what you sow.

[Tyler Durden]

28. DO YOU WANT OBAMA ELECTED?

Then he needs to ditch Wright. IMMEDIATELY. YESTERDAY. LAST YEAR.

NOBODY who has close relations with someone who screams "...GOD DAMN AMERICA..." has a snowball's chance in HELL of getting elected.

As was said to me, politics is very dirty. Time to get even dirtier, or drop out. NO WAY Obama can run this race carrying that load.

[Hugabear]

31. Better that this come out now than in October

Obama is not responsible for what his pastor says. Obama has already denounced these statements, and I think you'll see him start to distance himself from Rev. Wright. However, as many have pointed out, McCain has his own controversial religious assholes to deal with. If they want to make a big deal out of Wright, we can easily counter with Hagee, Robertson, etc.

By the time the conventions are over, this will be a non-issue. I'd much rather get this out of the way now, than have to deal with it in the general election.

[Tyler Durden]

38. "Not his problem, move on, nothing to see."

That is something REPUBLICANS get away with, not DEMOCRATS.

Ignoring this will elect McCain. Time for Obama to max out on damage control.

[Mike Daniels]

59. He's not responsible but by remaining part of that church he tactically approves of the message

When people don't agree with a church's or pastor's message they generally find a new church or get a new pastor.

Wright has a history of making these statements. Barack's continued involvement with the church says he has no major issues with these statements coming from his pastor.

Don't think this is going to blow over as Wright's comments seem to fit as a piece with Obama's wife's comment about just now being proud of America.

[stillcool]

33. Such outrage!

It's kind of amusing to see people get all worked up over a preacher's sermon.

[Tyler Durden]

39. Fine. just ignore it.

He does NOTHING, we get McCain. I'm putting serious money on that by the way.

[stillcool]

43. I ignore nothing...

I embrace it. I'm not afraid of black people, nor am I afraid of the truth. I like understanding history, and I like making sense of the world. I'm very big on cause and effect and logic. You bet your money on whoever you want. I hope you get the outcome you desire.

[Tyler Durden]

46. I'm sure I will.

I've called every election since 1972 and made some excellent bets, thank you.

Has it occurred to anyone that the vast majority of the population will be jumping over a very high bar just to VOTE for a black man?

I really don't think you know what it's LIKE down here in the Deer huntin', Goin' Campin' 'n' fishin', Divin' my TAHOE, got 3 a them BLACKS in town and they ain't bad fellers for BLACKS, NRA land.

FUCK. The assholes where I work still mostly think he's a MUSLIM, and the few that DON'T think he CONVERTED from Islam.

You may want HONESTY and I also understand History, Cause and Effect, and all that goes with it, but you're in denial if you think that the General Population does.

I wish you were wrong, but you're not. That's about as politely as I can put it.

[stillcool]

51. Well...if that is the case...

and the people of this country are that arrogant and ignorant what difference does it make? The individuals you speak of sound like they are very willing, even eager, to keep to the status quo. I'm glad I don't hang out with the people you do. Thank Goodness it isn't 1972 and that so many have availed themselves to the knowledge easily obtained on the internet. The future is theirs.

[Tyler Durden]

53. I give up on you. I am not attacking Obama.

GO TO THE BLOGS. Go to the net. This issue is Red hot and getting hotter. If you believe, and I don't think you do, that there is no difference between the Republicans and Democrats, then do nothing. President McCain will I'm sure work for the change you so desperately want.

OBAMA CAN FIX THIS, but time is running out. Is everyone who supports him so ARROGANT to believe he can just fly above this? If so, there's no point in saying anything.

[stillcool]

57. I've been all over the net...

and I see all kinds of crap. I find nothing wrong with the reverend's sermon. At all. I think it's a good thing we are all being reminded of who we are, and where we've been.

[amandabeech]

52. There are lots of those kind of folks in some of the swing states.

Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Missouri, Arkansas, and beautiful, bedraggled Michigan, where you live now and where I grew up. My dad loved hunting and fishing, btw.

Obama might have to pick up electoral votes elsewhere if McCain uses Rev. Wright, the lapel pin episode, the no-hand-over-heart picture and Michelle's original misstatement regarding her pride in her country. That's a lot of material with the same theme, however false or irrelevant here on DU, that will not play well against a former POW with lots of centrists.

[Tyler Durden]

55. Damned Right.

If he does nothing, and then gets the nod, then we are DONE.

[amandabeech]

56. As my Dad used to say, "Yup." n/t

[Mike Daniels]

60. Yet people here got repeatedly PO'ed about stuff coming from Falwall and Robertson

You can't have it both ways.

[stillcool]

64. I'm not asking to have anything,..

both ways. I agree with everything the Reverend Wright said. Obama is where he is not because he is black, but in spite of the fact that he is black. Race has been interjected into this campaign from the get go. Blowback is the reason for 9/11. I don't want to go point by point and provide you with information to back up the man's claims, but I am more than willing to do so if you let me know what part of what he said you find untrue.

[Freddie Stubbs]

34. Why won't Senator Obama say this?

:shrug:

[Orsino]

36. The folks who were killed and bereaved on 9/11 were hardly the chief perps.

The hijackers' aim was poor in that respect, but yes, Wright has a point in that American policy is partly to blame. We who failed to steer that policy in humane directions have our share.

[Johonny]

37. I've heard similar crap for years

What preachers damning America, American culture, American government is news? It's only been going on for some 221 some odd years. Does it make it right? No. Occasionally it has blow back on the preacher, but usually on that pulpit they get away with saying some of the most antidemocratic, antiAmerican, Antiliberty, antifreedom things you might want to hear.

[Echo In Light]

41. Because the US govt carries out a lot of evil, and does so in all of our names, our tax $

[Johonny]

42. I think it has more to do with

the tradition of evangelizing. It's hard to evangelize and be happy and content with the state of society.

[stillcool]

44. Blowback...

...........Published in 2000...........

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blowback_CJohnson/Blowback_BCJ.html
excerpts from the book
Blowback The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
by Chalmers Johnson
Henry Holt, 2000

The term "blowback," which officials of the Central Intelligence Agency first invented for their own internal use, is starting to circulate among students of international relations. It refers to the unintended consequences of policies that were kept secret from the American people. What the daily press reports as the malign acts of "terrorists" or "drug lords" or "rogue states" or "illegal arms merchants" often turn out to be blowback from earlier American operations.
p9
One man's terrorist is, of course, another man's freedom fighter, and what U.S. officials denounce as unprovoked terrorist attacks on its innocent citizens are often meant as retaliation for previous American imperial actions. Terrorists attack innocent and undefended American targets precisely because American soldiers and sailors firing cruise missiles from ships at sea or sitting in B-52 bombers at extremely high altitudes or supporting brutal and repressive regimes from Washington seem invulnerable. As members of the Defense Science Board wrote in a 1997 report to the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and technology, "Historical data show a strong correlation between U.S. involvement in international situations and an increase in terrorist attacks against the United States. In addition, the military asymmetry that denies nation states the ability to engage in overt attacks against the United States drives the use of transnational actors ."
The most direct and obvious form of blowback often occurs when the victims fight back after a secret American bombing, or a U.S.-sponsored campaign of state terrorism, or a ClA-engineered overthrow of a foreign political leader. All around the world today, it is possible to see the groundwork being laid for future forms of blowback.
p12
-----------------------------------------
Terrorism(by definition)strikes at the innocent in order to draw attention to the sins of the invulnerable. The innocent of the twenty-first century are going to harvest unexpected blowback disasters from the imperialist escapades of recent decades. Although most Americans may be largely ignorant of what was, and still is, being done in their names, all are likely to pay a steep price-individually and collectively-for their nation's continued efforts to dominate the global scene. Before the damage of heedless triumphalist acts and the triumphalist rhetoric and propaganda that goes with them becomes irreversible, it is important to open a new discussion of our global role during and after the Cold War...
----------------------

"Blowback" is shorthand for saying that a nation reaps what it sows, even if it does not fully know or understand what it has sown. Given its wealth and power, the United States will be a prime recipient in the foreseeable future of all of the more expectable forms of blowback, particularly terrorist attacks against Americans in and out of the armed forces anywhere on earth, including within the United States. But it is blowback in its larger aspect-the tangible costs of empire-that truly threatens it. Empires are costly operations, and they become more costly by the year. The hollowing out of American industry, for instance, is a form of blowback-an unintended negative consequence of American policy- even though it is seldom recognized as such. The growth of militarism in a once democratic society is another example of blowbackEmpire is the problem. Even though the United States has a strong sense of invulnerability and substantial military and economic tools to make such a feeling credible, the fact of its imperial pretensions means that a crisis is inevitable. More imperialist projects simply generate more blowback. If we do not begin to solve problems in more prudent and modest ways, blowback will only become more intense.

[Echo In Light]

45. Chalmers is spot on/Sorrows of Empire - but I hold to the info on it being an inside job

[stillcool]

49. I think it's both...

It's kind of funny that it was published in 2000, and here we are in 2008 and people on a political site are still trying to refute the basic premise.

[slackmaster]

40. If there was an un-recommend button, I'd have hit it on this turd bomb

:nuke:

[Hugabear]

50. There is

It's called alert or ignore.

If you want to bury your head in the sand, be my guest.

There ARE reasons why much of the world hates us, you know.

[ThatsMyBarack]

47. They hate the Bushco. freedoms!

[blues90]

58. Rev Wright comes off as a freak with a lot of hate .

I heard all that there is out there at this point and what he said . You first have to buy the official story put out about 9/11 which i don't .

Wright seems to think it was only white people who died on 9/11 and it has something to do with payback but all the time he is talking leading up to the attack he uses the word we , as in we bombed Japan .

If Wright wants to make it racial he has succeeded in that respect .

There is racism displayed from all races as far as I can tell . If people want to generalize to say it is mostly whites then fine , this may be where it began in the US and UK and Germany .

Most of the population alive today had nothing to do with slaves or the fate of the Jews or the take over of Mexico's US western borders . I certainly didn't .

People choose to carry their hate from generation to generation and not let go of it . This seems to be the only part of history people remember all so well .

Wright is way out there with his hate which really does not seem to be a proper display and attitude in a church .

I don't want any part of the hate or racism from anyone , people who care to bring it to the table should simply think first and then keep their mouths shut if they have nothing better to offer .

No one on earth here now can do anything to change the past other than to let go of the past . I fear this may never happen .

[VotesForWomen]

61. is that you, Rev. Falwell? nt

[warren pease]

63. Falwell/Robertson, mentioned upthread, were right ... just not the way they meant it...

Warning: this is a bit long, but it's so damn great you ought to slog through it anyway. Or not.


Despite their shameful attempt to blame 9/11 on the usual objects of GOP hatred, I actually think the argument that we brought it on ourselves isn't as weird as it looks at first glance. It's just not quite the argument lard-ass Jerry and smarmy Pat made.

If 9/11 happened as the official conspiracy tells us it did, then we're guilty of setting things in motion by electing the Bush criminal enterprise to anything more important than city council (and as long as we're dealing with official stories, let's set aside the stolen elections for the time being for the sake of this argument).

This group of violent imperialist thieves presented such a clear and present military threat to the entire Middle East and its oil reserves that bin Laden, taking orders from his state sponsors, decided to try a little preemptive action. By that line of reasoning, the attacks were intended to delay or possibly prevent entirely what anybody who pays attention to right wing ideology could see was coming. PNAC's manifesto is essentially a users manual for US imperialism, and it doesn't take an expert to decipher its intent.

Unfortunately, their reasoning was lousy and all they accomplished was pissing off a nation of hyper-consumers and normally inattentive TV addicts while reversing Bushie's growing unpopularity and turning him into The Commander Guy with a 90 percent approval rating. The rest is just bloody history, per the PNAC script.


Or...


If 9/11 was an inside job -- and I don't see any way it wasn't, given the huge and growing body of physical, anecdotal and circumstantial evidence that makes a joke of the official myth -- then it's our fault for allowing the right wing coup to take over without 50 million people in the streets of DC running them out of town before the moving vans even showed up.

Instead, we proved to the right wing overlords that we're not serious people and that we don't really value the things we say we do -- chief among them a government of, by and for the people that seeks to promote life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all its citizens.

This demonstration of passivity signaled that they had free rein to do just about any damn thing they wanted to without any real risk of resistance from the debt slaves and corporate androids who slept through the coup and were about to sleep through the Bushie's regime.

But one little detail was missing: the "new Pearl Harbor" PNAC saw was necessary to get away with the whole war profiteering, money making, crony rewarding scam. They needed an event so outrageous that the American people would be scared half to death and turn to the Bushies for protection.

An event that would allow them to get away with the most transparent lies, suppress anything inconvenient by declaring national security and/or muzzling the already compliant corporate media, implement the most obviously fascistic laws and policies without public or congressional opposition, attack any country they damn well wanted to (as long as there was money to be made in war hardware and/or fossil fuels theft) and generally conduct themselves as the masters of the universe that all pure sociopaths see when they look in the mirror.

And so 9/11 was set in motion. Evidence now suggests it was planned long before the 2000 coup, possibly as early as the mid-90s. This would be consistent with a tightly choreographed, meticulously planned sequence of events scripted by a group of right wing takeover artists who knew they had all the pieces in place to assure a Bush victory in 2000 -- by any means necessary.

So that's the other argument, taking into account the foregone conclusion that this coup would take place on schedule and that it would require a significant, polarizing event to get the public to go along with massive DoD spending hikes and corresponding cuts in social programs. I'd say mission accomplished, eh?


Those already bored can stop reading now, if you haven't already. For the rest... a brief diversion into the mechanics of the coup and the amazing legal and PR moves that planted Bushie as The Decider in the public mind.


As it happened, the process was relatively simple: First, set things up so that the whole election turns on results from a state governed by Bushie's brother and where the woman in charge of running fair elections is also chair of the Florida for Bush campaign.

Then have his first cousin declare Bush the winner on Fox TV on election night. Even though the rest of the networks had called Florida for Gore or had said it was too close to call either way, this one move positioned Bushie as the winner, a good man wronged and just trying to stay above the fray while fending off this unseemly challenge to the will of the people from a couple of "sore losers."

Then, when the recount starts, ship in a couple of dozen GOP operatives playing angry preppie mobs, intimidate local election workers into stopping critical vote counts in key districts, bring out a robust-looking James Baker -- the Bushie's chief fixer -- to make Bushie's case and, thanks to the customary democratic incompetence and stupidity re PR, pair him against Warren Christopher, the dem's chief advocate, who looked like he had been exhumed after five years underground and made Baker look even more credible by comparison.

Create numerous false trails and diversions, keep Gore supporters wasting limited time chasing phantoms, run to the Florida supreme court when anything even looks like it might go against the GOP, keep badgering the ballot counters so they screw things up and waste more time, keep sucking up to the local and national media so the case is tried in the press rather than in the Florida courts, where they might actually lose.

Finally, after screwing around for weeks, getting extensions, fomenting more preppie intimidation, fighting through a couple of setbacks from the Florida supremes -- and all the while TV "news" is showing Bushie meeting with his cabinet and preparing to go to work, further demonstrating that Bushie knows he's right and that he's a patient, dedicated public servant, respectful of the rule of law, and willing to let the process vindicate him... After all that, Baker claims that the Florida court shouldn't be the arbitrators of a national election.

People actually buy this, even though it's unconstitutional, Rehnquist agrees to hear the case, and Baker gets his day in front of the US supremes -- a carefully selected group of hard right wingers and "moderates" who in any civilized country would be called totalitarians but here in winger land are known as centrists.

And of course, they give it to Bushie 5 - 4 in a decision so odious that none of them signed the majority opinion. They also made sure everybody knew this case was not to establish precedent -- even though the main thing the supreme court does is establish precedent.

Trying to find humor in a right wing coup is pretty tough, but you've got to love the court's reasoning that continuing to count the ballots might prejudice Bushie's chances of being elected and so the counting must stop. Which is to say, further vote counts might show that Gore won, which would fuck up the entire bloodless coup thing and they'd have to send in the troops to seize power. Nobody wants that, so it's best for all to just quit counting votes and avoid bloodshed.

So, that's my case for why we're all to blame for "the events of 9/11(tm)." Lame? Nice try, but...? Right on the mark? Stupidest thing I've ever read? A triumph of logic and perception? Or maybe just a single :puke:


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