|
well worth reading, but I don't think it penetrates the core of the Bush junta very well. Scheuer's advice about dealing with Al Quaeda and bin Laden, and Islamic jihad, stems from his assessment of how legitimate Arab/Muslim concerns have been treated by the West--in essence, extremely badly. He says the jihadists really don't "hate us for our freedom" or want to invade and destroy us. They really don't want to have anything to do with us. Their concerns are more internal and have to do with self-determination, as well as respect for Arab/Muslim peoples, and their sovereignty. He mentions several instances of Western interference and injustice that are critically important, including U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia (the Holy Land), and the the West's failure to enforce a just solution in Palestine. He basically says that it is nuts to ignore concerns like these, and what do we expect from having pursued such arrogant, undiplomatic unwise policy? He further completely disagrees with post-9/11 analysis, which went militaristic, rather than diplomatic. In general, no one was discussing the REASONS 9/11 happened--not to excuse the attack, but to understand and address WHY it occurred. He believes it was the result of very specific grievances.
I often think of what the US/Israel did to Iran in 1954. They deliberately crushed Iran's new democracy, and installed the horrible Shah, who inflicted 25 years of torture and oppression on the Iranian people. Is it any wonder that Iranians profoundly distrust the West, and have been driven into the arms of the mullahs? And we continue to do everything possible to PREVENT self-determination and democracy in that land. Iran has quite a young population, with a strong liberal streak. And what does the Bush junta do? They include them in the "Axis of Evil" and threaten them with bombing and invasion, thus reinforcing the RIGHTWING of the society.
I can't recall if Scheuer (then known as "Anonymous") goes into the example of Iran. But that is the gist of the book. And I would agree with it, in a normal world--that 9/11 was the result of egregiously unjust policy over many decades, and that if we want world peace, we must pursue fairness, justice, objectivity and wisdom in our behavior toward other countries and peoples, and in our diplomatic missions.
In a normal world. But I don't think the Bush junta is normal. And that is where we disagree. I think there is too much that is highly suspicious in the Bushites' behavior around 9/11. I think they were complicit. (I guess I'm LIHOP--they "let it happen.") There is simply no other explanation that I can think of for the breakdown of every standard NORAD procedure on that day, and that day only. And when you find out that, a) Donald Rumsfeld, our Sec of Defense, quietly pulled all NORAD decisions into his own hands four months before 9/11, and b) was AWOL during the critical hour after the WTC was hit, when our nation's capitol lay open to attack and undefended, with at least one hijacked plane headed towards it, and c) that NO ONE has adequately explained or investigated this amazing failure, even with evidence of a coverup (shredded flight controller tapes, etc.)--the known facts scream at you. This was an inside job--somebody told NORAD to stand down, or some group was working within to disable its procedures. And this is just one example of the "black holes" in the official story.
And there is absolutely NOTHING to be found in the behavior of the Bush junta on all other matters of policy and government to cause me to give them any benefit of the doubt. They are extremely secretive and dishonest, and lawless, in numerous other ways. Their main motive, from what I can tell, is looting our county blind--a $10 TRILLION deficit, with money larded onto the super-rich and Bush buddies like Halliburton, often in completely unaccountable ways ("no bid" contracts, indeed).
Scheuer lives in a world in which we HAVE a foreign policy. But the Bushites have destroyed that world and created one in which our foreign policy is a looting expedition, for them and their global corporate predator cabalists.
I say "our" ("our foreign policy is a looting expedition") euphemistically. There is no more "our" as to the U.S. government. Our government has been seized by the Bush junta. There is now an extremely grave disconnect between the U.S. government and any and all interests of the American people. Our government no longer belongs to us in any sense of the word. The final severance occurred, in my opinion, with installation of Diebold and ES&S (Bushite-controlled) electronic voting systems, run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls, prior to the 2004 election--a quite deliberately designed system to steal elections, easily and undetectably, forever more.
There are certainly stateless people in the world--crazies, criminals, or people consumed with power scenarios--who want to harm innocent people to accomplish their own ends. The Bush cabal is not the least among them. But putting them aside, there ARE effective police methods--and other measures, such as fair and just national policy--to deal with any such "terrorist" element. Scheuer is absolutely right about this. If bin Laden were the problem, it would be insane to disband the one CIA unit that knows the most about him.
But bin Laden is not the problem. The Bush junta is the problem. Or, I should say, bin Laden and associated jihadists are only a very minor part of the problem. The Bush junta's direct and indirect use of "terrorists" to enrich themselves at our expense and to destroy our democracy, and to loot and destroy other people as well, IS the problem, and it is huge.
Common sense would tell us to retain the best intelligence unit on bin Laden. But common sense is not at work. What is at work is massive thievery on a scale unheard of in human history--and the bludgeoning and destruction of all democratic processes to that puny end: the egregious enrichment of the few.
How do we get common sense back? Well, I think we had better start with Diebold and ES&S! We are NOT going to get common sense, and good government, and democracy back by appealing to the Bush junta. We have to RESTORE our power to throw them out. And restoring transparent, verifiable elections is step one toward that end. It is still doable. We had better get on it, while it still is.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
