Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Our memories not only serve the purpose of learning to avoid danger from past experience, they serve as the glue that holds our sense of our fleeting lives together into a linear personal narrative. For all of us most memories are specific to our direct life experiences. There are some memories though transcending personal encounters and that directly affect us as well as society as a whole. The murder of John F. Kennedy is one such experience from my life that profoundly affected me and my generation, even though all I knew of the man was third hand at best. Closer in time but equally, if not more indelible is the image of the destruction wrought on the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001. I would guess that almost all Americans who were alive on that day know where they were and what they were doing. This past week we passed the eleventh anniversary of this horror and innumerable solemn observances occurred throughout the nation.
I can remember one phrase that began to be used over and over from that day onward and my rising anger at the implications of that phrase. “This Changes Everything”. I’ve not been able to determine what news-person or pundit first uttered those words, but afterwards the phrase reverberated incessantly. As that fateful day passed, what took shape in the meme those words created, was that the United States had undergone an experience that changed all the rules we had purportedly lived by in dealing with the world around us. In effect it was like saying “No more Mr. Nice Guy”. Whether or not our country ever lived by the ideals it purported to live by is another question entirely. My anger rose at the overuse of this meme because I’ve spent my life wanting my country to live by a higher standard in both national and international relations. I correctly saw this meme as an attempted usurpation of this tragedy towards turning our country away from our national ideals, such as they were. As the years passed since 9/11/2001, we have watched the erosion of these America Ideals. Two murderous wars have been waged. Hundreds of thousands have died, or been maimed. Our “national treasure” depleted, torture has become legalized and with the passage of the “Patriot Act” we have watched the demolition of our personal freedom. With this anniversary, two articles appeared nationally that call into question what was really behind 9/11 and also why there was a possibility of deterring it, which was ignored by the G.W. Bush Administration. I want to discuss both of these articles and then add my own thoughts on their real context.
Bob Graham was a Senator from Florida when 9/11 occurred. He was in fact the long time Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, one of the most powerful and important positions in the U.S. Senate:
“Senator Graham opposed the War in Iraq for fear it would divert U.S. attention from the fight in Afghanistan. After reviewing information and meeting with military leaders in February 2002, he decided the war would be a “distraction” that would end poorly. He continues to oppose the Iraq War today.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Graham
The truth has been shown that Iraq was a war of poor choice and that it had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11. It is also proven that Iraq had no “weapons of mass destruction” to justify our attack upon that country either. To my mind history has added luster to Senator Graham, as a man who was bravely willing to fight against the flow of “now this changes everything” propaganda and whom history has proven prescient. Therefore I took notice when I saw his byline on this Huffpost article: “Re-Open the 9/11 Investigation Now”
“The passage of time since September 11, 2001, has not diminished the distrust many of us feel surrounding the official story of how 9/11 happened and, more specifically, who financed and supported it. After eleven years, the time has come for the families of the victims, the survivors and all Americans to get the whole story behind 9/11.
Yet the story of who may have facilitated the 19 hijackers and the infrastructure that supported the attacks — a crucial element of the narrative — has not been told. The pieces we do have underscore how much more remains unknown.
Did the hijackers execute the plot alone, or did they have the support of forces other than the known leaders of al-Qaeda — a network even — that provided funds, assistance, and cover?
It is not merely a question of the need to complete the historical record. It is a matter of national security today.”
What Bob Graham was alluding to is that the direct involvement of the Saudi’s in the 9/11 plot, perhaps even governmental. Since it is a kingdom ruled by a huge royal family, the connections between powerful Saudi’s and its government are not apparent to the outsider and highly suspicious. Graham feels that any investigation of further Saudi involvement has been derailed. We all know of the Saudi airplane that was allowed to leave the country on 9/12/2001, removing many parties who should have been directly questioned in the investigation of this terrorist act.
“Thousands of Americans, who suffered unimaginable loss, have been denied their day in court in part because evidence of support was either never gathered by law enforcement or remains locked away, sealed as “Classified.”
From the outset of the Congressional Joint Inquiry into 9/11, it seemed implausible that the hijackers — most of whom spoke no English and had never been to the U.S. — could have executed the heinous plot on their own. The inquiry proved those suspicions justified, and a 28-page chapter in its report centered on sources of foreign support for some of the September 11 hijackers while they were in the United States. That chapter remains censored, denied to the American people.
Sadly, those 28 pages represent only a fraction of the evidence of Saudi complicity that our government continues to shield from the public, under a flawed classification program which appears to be part of a systematic effort to protect Saudi Arabia from any real accountability for its actions. For example, after a nearly eight year delay, the CIA recently responded to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests submitted on behalf of the 9/11 families in 2004, for reports and documents cited in the notes of the 9/11 Commission’s Final Report. Unfortunately, when it came to documents such as a 16-page CIA report titled “Saudi Based Financial Support for Terrorist Organizations,” our own government redacted every word of substantive text.
Despite the carefully orchestrated campaign to protect our Saudi “friends,” ample evidence of Saudi Arabia’s intimate ties to al-Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks has come to light. The executive director of the 9/11 Commission, Dr. Philip Zelikow, stated in 2007 that while at that time he did not feel the evidence established “Saudi government agents,” were involved “there is persuasive evidence of a possible support network.”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-graham/911-saudi-arabia_b_1868863.html
Please read the Graham article and see if you find it as persuasive as I do. There was a second article though, that appeared in the New York Times Op Ed page on September 10, 2012, by Kurt Eichenwald entitled: “The Deafness Before the Storm” Kurt’s premise in this article is that the Bush Administration had clear evidence of the dire possibility of an impending Al Qaeda attack and chose to ignore it. From Eichenwald’s article:
“On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s “presidential daily brief” — the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies — featured the now-infamous heading: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” A few weeks later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda accomplished that goal.”
When the investigation of 9/11 took place the Bush Administration’s position:
“….dismissed the document’s significance, saying that, despite the jaw-dropping headline, it was only an assessment of Al Qaeda’s history, not a warning of the impending attack. While some critics considered that claim absurd, a close reading of the brief showed that the argument had some validity.”
Kurt Eichenwald goes on to write that the Bush Administration’s dismissal of the significance of the document had validity:
“…unless it was read in conjunction with the daily briefs preceding Aug. 6, the ones the Bush administration would not release. While those documents are still not public, I have read excerpts from many of them, along with other recently declassified records, and come to an inescapable conclusion: the administration’s reaction to what Mr. Bush was told in the weeks before that infamous briefing reflected significantly more negligence than has been disclosed. In other words, the Aug. 6 document, for all of the controversy it provoked, is not nearly as shocking as the briefs that came before it.
The direct warnings to Mr. Bush about the possibility of a Qaeda attack began in the spring of 2001. By May 1, the Central Intelligence Agency told the White House of a report that “a group presently in the United States” was planning a terrorist operation. Weeks later, on June 22, the daily brief reported that Qaeda strikes could be “imminent,” although intelligence suggested the time frame was flexible. But some in the administration considered the warning to be just bluster.” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/opinion/the-bush-white-house-was-deaf-to-9-11-warnings.html?_r=2&src=twr
Reading this article one sentence resonated with me based on much that I’ve thought about 9/11 and have expressed here in many guest blogs:
“An intelligence official and a member of the Bush administration, both told me in interviews that the neoconservative leaders who had recently assumed power at the Pentagon were warning the White House that the C.I.A. had been fooled; according to this theory, Bin Laden was merely pretending to be planning an attack to distract the administration from Saddam Hussein, whom the neoconservatives saw as a greater threat.”
As I have written here before and will supply background on, in the links at the end of this piece, “The Project for the New American Century” (PNAC) http://jonathanturley.org/2011/07/23/the-american-quest-for-empire/#more-37487was a document that represented the blueprint of the neo-conservative movement to achieve world dominance and achieve their dream of an American Empire established in the Twenty-First Century. With the election of George W. Bush in 2000, the people behind PNAC and the neo-conservative movement found themselves in charge of the Foreign Policy of the Administration and in charge of the Defense Department. Iraq was mentioned in PNAC as one of the regimes that needed to be overthrown to obtain control over its oil resources. PNAC also postulated the need for some calamity akin to the shock of “Pearl Harbor” to gain support from the American People. It is obvious where my train of thought is leading and I will go there, but first to be fair let us take the least damning view of what occurred.
Perhaps the Neo-Conservatives were not behaving duplicitously, but merely could not recognize evidence which differed from their pre-conceptions. If this were the case, then they and the entire Bush Administration were guilty of the grossest incompetence/arrogance in not actively trying to counter the Al Qaeda threat. By this incompetence they then set in motion a tragedy that is ongoing into the present and perhaps distant future. If this least case scenario is what actually happened then these neo-conservatives have forfeited any right to be involved with American Foreign Policy. Unfortunately, they are still overly involved with our country’s foreign policy and many of them are on the Romney Team, while others work for the current administration. All, however, are today interviewed by the media as “foreign policy experts” and thus continue to persist in pushing their distinctly anti-Constitutional doctrine.
Reading these two articles on subsequent days, as 9/11/12 arrived, got me to thinking about what was the truth behind this terrible event about which so many were willing to say “now this changes everything”, which then became a self-fulfilling prophecy. There are many conspiracy theories abounding: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11_conspiracy_theories , which you probably know, but can peruse if you will. My life experiences have taught me not to discount the possibilities of almost anything, since so much in life seems so bizarre and so many of what seemed eternal truths in my youth, have lost substance as the years have passed. I’ll let those who wish to comment on these conspiracies have at it below. Here though is my theory on what was the “truth” of 9/11, weaving in the implications of these two articles and my past efforts to explore PNAC and to dissect the warp and woof of this America history we share.
The experiences that World War II had upon those living in America, proved to be trans-formative for many in the Conservative establishment. Liberals, via the Progressive Tradition, embodied by Teddy Roosevelt, were already on board with the idea of the United States as an international power. Both conservative and liberal visions were capitalist in outlook and elitist in conception. Though the elitism was played down in our electoral processes, so as not to offend the majority of voters, it comes through historically overtly and covertly. Prior to this war the American conservatives were mainly isolationist, although both American continents were viewed as our bailiwicks. With World War II came the realization of the profits to be made in defense contracting and also necessarily the interweaving of business men with governmental operations.
The conservative isolationists had always seen the socialist and communist movements in our country as dangerous to their corporate interests. FDR’s “New Deal” had mollified those elements by bringing them into the process. The defeat of the German’s as they invaded Russia morphed into a rout and in the process established the USSR as a world power, second only to the U.S. At least two years before the end of World War II both conservative and liberal foreign policy “realists” were urging that our country prepare to do battle with the spectra of a world communist movement radiating out of the USSR. The former isolationists changed their outlook and joined in common cause with the progressive internationalists among the U.S. elite. This is where the whole concept of a “bi-partisan” foreign policy arose. This “bi-partisanship” among the American foreign policy establishment lasted in the Presidency’s and in the Congress until the Viet Nam War, when some in the “foreign Policy” elite on the Left began to re-think their premises.
In truth the “re-thinking” had always existed, but began in earnest in the 1950’s, as “Progressivism” transformed itself from the Teddy Roosevelt concept of the duty of the Anglo-Saxon elite to impose their superior culture onto a barbaric world, thus uplifting it to just below our standards of superiority. This transformation led to an agreement among most progressives about the realization that our culture is not superior to other cultures and in fact perhaps all cultures can learn something from other cultures. This came along with the rejection of imperialism and the dismantling of empires small and large.
Establishments being what they are, difficult to dislodge, the “bi-partisan” consensus remained among the established elite, forged by the lessons of Neville Chamberlain’s Munich debacle. “Hawkish” Democrats like Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoop_Jackson joined together with Republican “Hawks” to promote an aggressive American Foreign Policy and prosecute the “Cold War”, overtly and covertly. That this aggressive policy seemed to perfectly dovetail with private America economic interest’s world wide was not just an added benefit of this policy, but actually was intertwined into the impetus for its continuance. There was money to be made in feeding the hunger of the Defense Department and the ever growing intelligence establishment. There were economic interests to be advanced world wide in controlling other country’s natural resources and in destabilizing governments who weren’t receptive to the economic control of the growing International Corporate exploitation. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the “Cold War” removed the “raison d’etre” of the “Defense Hawks”. Despite the “Reagan did it” mythology, spread about for political purposes, the collapse was really about the inability of Communist leadership to hide from their people the deficiency’s of their oppressive system and thus a collapse in the myth of a “worker’s paradise”.
With the “Cold War” over and with the rise to prominence of formidable nations vying for economic superiority, the aims of the “Hawkish Elite” to maintain American dominance needed new material to weave into a mythology of justification for American hegemony, which by then really meant multinational corporate hegemony over nation states. We thus had the merger of neo-Liberal and neo-Conservative foreign policy administrators, advisers and experts, who came together to formulate this mythology of America Empire for the sake of humanity. Its’ intellectual apogee was in the PNAC document and the events subsequent to it as discussed above.
The election of George W. Bush brought those behind PNAC into power. They were, by their own admission in 1998, looking for a national tragedy akin to Pearl Harbor, which would rally the nation together under their banner and give impetus for “a new American Century” where our country would become the world’s dominant empire. 9/11 came and off they went. However, in the world view of most American’s, which sees this country as the center of the all the activity on this Earth, we perhaps miss the other possibilities that exist. As backward as Saudi Arabia is from a socio-religious perspective, their leadership is and always has been quite sophisticated. Through the years this sophistication has led them to use their wealth to buy our politicians and to even buy our media institutions like CNN. They have had long standing economic partnerships with the Bush Family for instance, and to us down here it is not quite clear who the dominant partner is, but my bet is on the Saudi’s being in effect the employer, of employees who aren’t fully aware of their subservience. These economic relationships extend to almost all of the signatories to PNAC.
My propositions are that the Saudi government or powerful forces within it, understanding PNAC’s implications, were delighted by and financially supported George Bush’s ascension to the Presidency. With Dick Cheney really in charge of the incompetent and malleable Bush, the Saudi’s saw their opportunity to gain their long cherished hegemony in the Middle East, by using its American tool to do the heavy lifting of making war. They helped devise and financially backed the Al Qaeda plan to attack the World Trade Center. Their neo-con minions so focused on their desire to impose the American will upon the world, misled perhaps by the Saudi Intelligence Agency, ignored the obvious information before them and attacked Iraq, which was led by the Saudi’s number one contender for Middle Eastern hegemony, Saddam Hussein. Afghanistan, not part of the Saudi’s original plan, was set upon by the Neo Cons after it became apparent that the now destroyed Iraq wasn’t behind 9/11. The Afghanistan bonus was the potential for the estimated three trillion dollars of vital natural resources under their mountain ranges.
The war drums are beating again to attack the last Muslim competitor for Middle East Hegemony, Iran. If Iran is neutralized, or defeated, the Saudi’s will have become a Middle Eastern Empire, which no doubt is their goal. The United States will have continued to play its Hessian like role for the Saudi Empire as we try to enforce a “Pax Americana” on the world, though despite our own egotistic national pretensions we are merely the “hired help”.
9/11 really did change everything, but not as most expected. This country has shredded our Constitution in the name of a “War on Terror”. We have renounced the “Geneva Conventions” and the “Judgments at Nuremburg”. We have become a warlike nation, striving for empire and seeing the deaths of hundreds of thousands as collateral damage. We have sold out a dedicated generation of young Americans who have willing fought for a cause, that their war experience shows them is false and with that experience they’ve reacted with PTSD and an unholy high rate of suicide. I could go on, but if you haven’t gotten the bitter irony of it all as yet, you never will.
Below are links within which all the documentation I’ve used to back up my contentions can be found:
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/09/08/the-drum-beat-goes-on/
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/08/25/lest-we-forget/
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/06/23/missing-the-point-when-the-point-is-obvious/
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/03/17/a-real-history-of-the-last-sixty-two-years/
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/02/11/twitters-arab-winter/
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/09/10/the-president-has-been-afraid-of-what/
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/07/23/the-american-quest-for-empire/
Photo credit should read DOUG KANTER/AFP/Getty Images
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Blouise, I remember arguing with Nader voters.about how much this country would change if Bush became president as I had observed him in Texas. Actually I could not even have imagined how much……
The majority of my fellow countrymen followed his lead and the Cheney’s of the world took over. -Blouise
And some of the worst of it remains under wraps.
“We know that FISA has enabled the most pervasive state surveillance system ever known to humankind. The only settings in which powers like it have ever existed are dystopian science fiction novels.
Even the former Soviet Union and contemporary China, for all their efforts to control their people, lacked the resources to conduct the kind of monitoring that the NSA does every day — not only on terror suspects, but on you and your family.
We also know that the Obama administration has supported the Bush-Cheney NSA policy, extending it once before — even though Senator Obama, before winning the White House, promised at one point to vote against it. Until President Obama signed a 2011 law granting our military the potential power to detain any American indefinitely without proof of crime, FISA was the high water mark of the post 9-11 national security state.
Finally, we know that the American people can still defend our rights when aroused. Earlier this year, a grassroots firestorm stopped SOPA and PIPA before they transformed the Internet.
Congress already gave our government the power to conduct mass domestic spying by approving FISA four years ago, but a grassroots clamor this fall could stop that power from being renewed in the Senate — or at least force Congress to finally do its job and ask tough questions that should have been answered long ago, before writing the NSA yet another blank check.”
-Shahid Buttar, People’s Blog for the Constitution (refer to previous TruthOut link)
On the morning of 9/11 Bush knew before entering the classroom that 1 plane had hit the towers and in spite of all the intelligence he had received over the months, he figured that first hit was probably accidental and went ahead with his plans to read to the children.
I well remember that “deer in the headlights” look on Bush’s face while sitting in that classroom after being told that a 2nd plane had hit the towers … too stunned to think.
The majority of my fellow countrymen followed his lead and the Cheney’s of the world took over.
http://truth-out.org/news/item/11540-uncle-sam-is-watching-you Uncle Sam Is Watching You: Stop FISA Renewal
Friday, 14 September 2012 11:06 By Shahid Buttar, People’s Blog for the Constitution | News Analysis
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/11/who-else-opposes-an-iran-attack.html Americans are more supportive of sanctions against Iran rather that a direct attack. Sounds like they are supporting what the current administration is doing rather than the direct attack Romney is talking about.
I see that I was writing while Dredd was posting.
I assume his was the link I followed yesterday, although mine ended on a different site than the one he links to above.
Be that as it may, I thank him. And hope my more lengthy quote and my very pointed comments aid the cause of realizing that we have both treasons and traitors in our midst.
And I am confounded to know where they may not be found. Certainly nowhere that I can imagine at leading levels.
The PNACs would have us on our knees with the rest of the world in only very few decades, if that long.
MikeS,
Great article. Both in what is said, but also your concentrating it to the one blog, the Saudi connection and the PNAC one.
Let me add the one theme which is the worst one. How America was commanded to stand down her defenses, how towers can be tumbled with essential American aid, etc.
Rather than proving these conspiratorial contentions, let me refer to another article also written as reflection on 9/11/12. The link came from a previous thread (by whom?) here. The site and the author are strangers to me, so their value unknown. But like most folks, if I read and agree with it, I accept it enthusiastically.
============================================
The 11th Anniversary of 9/11 ~ Paul Craig Roberts
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/09/11/the-11th-anniversary-911-paul-craig-roberts/
“The article below was written for the Journal of 9/11 Studies for the eleventh anniversary of September 11, 2001, the day that terminated accountable government and American liberty. It is posted here with the agreement of the editors.
In order to understand the improbability of the government’s explanation of 9/11, it is not necessary to know anything about what force or forces brought down the three World Trade Center buildings, what hit the Pentagon or caused the explosion, the flying skills or lack thereof of the alleged hijackers, whether the airliner crashed in Pennsylvania or was shot down, whether cell phone calls made at the altitudes could be received, or any other debated aspect of the controversy.
You only have to know two things.
One is that according to the official story, a handful of Arabs, mainly Saudi Arabians, operating independently of any government and competent intelligence service, men without James Bond and V for Vendetta capabilities, outwitted not only the CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency, but all 16 US intelligence agencies, along with all security agencies of America’s NATO allies and Israel’s Mossad. Not only did the entire intelligence forces of the Western world fail, but on the morning of the attack the entire apparatus of the National Security State simultaneously failed. Airport security failed four times in one hour. NORAD failed. Air Traffic Control failed. The US Air Force failed. The National Security Council failed. Dick Cheney failed. Absolutely nothing worked. The world’s only superpower was helpless at the humiliating mercy of a few undistinguished Arabs.
It is hard to image a more far-fetched story–except for the second thing you need to know: The humiliating failure of US National Security did not result in immediate demands from the President of the United States, from Congress, from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and from the media for an investigation of how such improbable total failure could have occurred. No one was held accountable for the greatest failure of national security in world history.
Instead, the White House dragged its feet for a year resisting any investigation until the persistent demands from 9/11 families for accountability forced President George W. Bush to appoint a political commission, devoid of any experts, to hold a pretend investigation.”
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/09/11/the-11th-anniversary-911-paul-craig-roberts/
=============================
I think the first major paragraph implicates strongly the collusion of American centers of different types in the achievement of 9/11.
I think the second one confirms the first implication.
Here is not Obama trying to get us to forget torture and go forward quietly. Here is a President who utilized the fire he had built to its full effect. Our daily life and the events in them confirm the effects.
Now TPP (Trans Pacific Pact?) shows the next PNAC step where multinational corps rule over nations.
Do read the whole article. You may find it enlightening.
For my part I interpret Sen. Graham’s words being as near as he dared to go implying that there were more than simple colluders bought and paid for by the Saudis.
It was the open leadership of our nation at the highest level.
It’s size and complexity makes many say it was impossible. But so much speaks for the enormity of it all. Including the simple fact that the President was not visibly moved when it happened and he was on camera with the school childre. It is also evidenced in that he was not moved as routine called for to a safer place in face un an unexpected attack. They knew of it, they had planned it, the only unceratain part was if the “Lee Harvey Oswald” story had been disseminated by the press as was arranged.
Now I diverge into another role. I hope you are still reading. And will read the report linked above.
Last words, a paraphrase of J Edgar Hoover, in effect:
“There is a conspiracy so great that its size and complexity challenges the mind to believe in even its theoretical existence.” What could he have been referring to? The Soviets? Or something nearer?
Great article……
Mike:
Just finished reading your piece. I couldn’t be more impressed by your research and analysis. Simply superb!
P.S. Here is a link about the author of the piece quoted from in my comment above: Bio Paul Craig Roberts.
Note the letter from President Ronald Reagan thanking him for his very competent government service.
Great job Mike S.
All of it supported by competent evidence.
The news media portray truthers as fringe folk who do not grasp the intricacies of foreign policy.
I think you bring reasonable doubt to their allegations, but may I submit one additional piece that supports your post, and challenges theirs:
(Institute for Political Economy, Roberts, emphasis added). This position comes from a government official at the time, one who was authorized to take over the reigns of government in the event officials above his “rank” were eliminated.
He is not a fringe element, thus, the main stream media propaganda is exposed as being brazenly scripted to the detriment of the U.S. public.
Capt. Ratty, I see your “Barbara Anne” and raise you “Oh Effendi” by 10cc. It only sounds like we were playing them on the surface- such a quaint and mistaken viewpoint. Good beat too.
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/10cc/oheffendi.html
A masterful job Mike S, as usual. So many of the guest blawger articles are like me cooking a leg of lamb for just two of us- too much meat on the bone, they leave me stupefied and stunned by the time I finish the meal. You have done a sterling job of putting in order the old and new information available in a way to make sense of the many glaringly dispirit facts (and secrets) surrounding the events and political landscape that have led us here. Your struggle over the years with your own thoughts and unease at what happened clear and powerful in spurring you on with such and analysis and conclusion.
Your voice is eloquent in building a case for a much wider and more sophisticated world than most within our shores even begins to understand. We publicly build our political reality in two year increments, our elites build it decades at a time and some other countries, older and more practiced, set their goals on generational time-lines.
One of the first really intense self studies I did, back-door inspired by a movie, was the final Saudi ascendancy in Arabia after the first world war, and that was only part of the story of the latest chapter in their family history and prominence as a ruling family/clan. But the family aim was clear to them and their plan for empire, a centuries old endeavor, was ruthlessly pursued. Oil is a latecomer to that game but territory and trade was the driver for 250 years before even an issue. As your article states Iran is the last competitor the Saudis have. It was Iran and Saudi Arabia that built OPEC, were the big players. Old dynasties with long eyes, they plan and maneuver on a time-line longer than the history of our government.
Similarly, the elite houses of wealth, commerce, banking and politics that ruled Europe have their decedents scattered throughout all contemporary Western European and American institutions today. The blood of old kings and princes leaves it’s mark on tomorrow’s business and politics. They too had and have long eyes. The aristocracy still thrives.
We are such pawns, I feel that more an more, pawns to the past and a potential (and probably planned) future we are scarcely aware of. I read the thought in a book about the roots of world war one (that led inexorably to world war two) that America’s ruling class, the fruition of their plans for the country in sight after WWI, became haters of Hitler not for his vision of the future but because he made such a muck of it with his impatience and grossness in Europe that their own plans for the US were set back generations. If only he had used some finesse.
Your article has sharpened and illuminated many thoughts for me, thanks for the work and scholarship.
Here are the lyrics:
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb,
Bomb Iran
Let’s take a stand
Bomb Iran
Our country’s got a feelin’
Really hit the ceilin’, bomb Iran
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran
Went to a mosque, gonna throw some rocks
Tell the Ayatollah, “Gonna put you in a box!”
Bomb Iran. Bomb, bomb, bomb,
Bomb Iran
Our country’s got a feelin’
Really hit the ceilin’, bomb Iran
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran
Ol’ Uncle Sam’s gettin’ pretty hot
Time to turn Iran into a parking lot
Bomb Iran. Bomb, bomb, bomb,
Bomb Iran
Our country’s got a feelin’
Really hit the ceilin’, bomb Iran
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran
Call the volunteers; call the bombadiers;
Call the financiers; better get their *** in gear
Bomb Iran. Bomb, bomb, bomb,
Bomb Iran
Our country’s got a feelin’
Really hit the ceilin’, bomb Iran
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran
(Let’s nuke ’em! Whoo!)
Call on our allies to cut off their supplies
Get our hands untied, and bring em’ back alive
Bomb Iran. Bomb, bomb, bomb,
Bomb Iran
Our country’s got a feelin’
Really hit the ceilin’, bomb Iran
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb,
Bomb Iran
Let’s take a stand
Bomb Iran
Our people you been stealin’
Now it’s time for “keelin”, bomb Iran
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran (Stavro Arrgolus)
[To the tune of BarbarAnn– The Beach Boys]
In 1980 when the Soviets were in Afghanistan the CIA and the MI6 (British) spies were recruiting Muslim Brotherhood brothers to go fight the Soviets. Some of these guys killed Anwar Sadat the President of Egypt. al Zawari who is now number 2 or 1 in al Qaeda did prison time but they let the schmuck out. He was a large player in 9/11. All of these Saudi tentheads are suspect but the question must be asked if we were better off leaving the Soviets to deal with Afghanistan and try to keep our modest influence in Egypt. We have had all of this warfare and issues of weapons of mass destruction and now Iran with weapons of mass destruction. We certainly dont want an Islamic country to get a nuclear bomb. Pakistan has one and they are dangerous. Remember this too. that Iran always deals through stooges whether it is the Students who took over our Embassy in 1979 or the Hamas terrorists who shoot rockets into Israel every day. We need to be allies with the Russians to keep these Stan countries down and keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of turbinheads. War with Iran now would be preferable to them getting the bomb. Are we, or is the World, better off because the Soviets left Afghanistan? No. Have things improved since the peanut farmer left office? No. Did Bush invade the wrong I (eye) country? Yes. Its Iran Bushdog, not Iraq.
good article, Mike. a subject we should know much more about.
p.s. check the wiki link for bob graham
Mike,
Another great article. It seems to me that every single lesson we learned from 9/11 was wrong and we lack the will to admit or even examine any of our mistakes—thus making it impossible to correct them and dooming us to the consequences of our folly.
Mike:
I truly appreciate your words and your research. They resonate more deeply than I can say.
Now, I need to do some homework into the sources you’ve carefully referenced. And if I can ever add a comment worth anything, I’ll do it.
In the meantime, maybe we all ought to climb up into the nearest church belfry and yell out one of your most prescient observations, and a totally repugnant truth:
“Two murderous wars have been waged. Hundreds of thousands have died, or been maimed. Our “national treasure” depleted, torture has become legalized and with the passage of the “Patriot Act” we have watched the demolition of our personal freedom.”
And,
“9/11 really did change everything, but not as most expected. This country has shredded our Constitution in the name of a ‘War on Terror.’
We have renounced the “Geneva Conventions” and the Judgments at Nuremburg. We have become a warlike nation, striving for empire and seeing the deaths of hundreds of thousands as collateral damage.
We have sold out a dedicated generation of young Americans who have willing fought for a cause, that their war experience shows them is false and with that experience they’ve reacted with PTSD and an unholy high rate of suicide.”
Great job.
Brilliant article. For related piece, see “Failing to Learn from 9/11: America is Trapped in Bush’s Brain” (http://theglobal99movement.blogspot.com/2012/09/failing-to-learn-from-911-america-is.html).
More justification why Obama/Holder should lift “states secrets” gag on, “FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds is Great American Hero & One Hidden From US Public” (http://theglobal99movement.blogspot.com/2012/08/fbi-whistleblower-sibel-edmonds-is.html#links)