Please help me understand this about staged terror attacks.

[GaYellowDawg]

Isn't the main rationale about the Iraq conflict that we're "fighting the terrists over there so we don't have to fight them here"? How would a staged terra attack help his cause if "they're" all of a sudden over here?

Wouldn't that be it for the last rationale about Iraq? How would Bush NOT lose a ton of support instead of gain it?

How would he still be able to pass himself off as the nation's protector? I know his administration is the most blatant lying administration we've ever seen, but he's been hanging his hat on being the one to protect the US against terra for some time now. How would he be anything but powerless after another attack? Wouldn't the nation be boiling with rage at his ineffectiveness? Or would it be more likely that they'd be able to deflect it to the Middle East?

Is the United States just that dumb? Perhaps that question should be filed under "don't like the answer, don't ask the question."

Edited to add: I ask these questions with the belief that Bush/Cheney would do it in a heartbeat if they thought it'd get them what they wanted.

[SoonerPride]

1. I think the next one gets blamed on Hamas (so we can bomb Iran)

Just my thought

[dflprincess]

14. And Bush can declare Marshall Law

n/t

[Duer 157099]

2. Number one, forget about rational thought

Number two, *if* such an attack were to occur, you could bet your bottom dollar that the blame would be placed on everyone who opposes the Iraq war (regardless of who actually would carry out an attack).

Plus, in a time of "attack" it would be deemed highly unpatriotic (if not illegal) to speak any criticism of the government.

[Cha]

9. Not to you..but

Fuck That! The next one that happens is right on bushit's back.

They couldn't prevent another one..past time to Impeach the both of them.

Fuckers want it to be like 2001 but this country has wised up and the corporatemediawhores can catapult rove's propoganda all they want but it's goin' on the garbage pile of wasted airwaves.

[MadMaddie]

3. Well because we live in bizarro world...* world....

A staged attack would allow him to try to justify staying in Iraq....if he had done it 1-2 years ago....it might have worked....but too many Americans have figured out their game...

The pipes blowing in New York proved that it doesn't take much to put fear in the people....

In reality we know the opposite is true...it proves that the Rethuglicans plan is a failure!

[AntiFascist]

13. Tin foil hat time....

just from a "BFEE marketing" point of view, what was the general response in downtown Manhattan after the pipes blew? Generally what were people thinking, besides all the fear?

[MadMaddie]

17. O....B.....L......

[C_U_L8R]

4. Republicans foolishly believe "security" issues favor them

when they have done nothing but botch up every "security" issue
for the last 6 years. You'd have to be dense to believe republicans
are strong on defense and security... when the glaring truth
is that republicans are absolute proven fuck-ups.

[Warpy]

5. It's a calculated risk

Either enough people are awake and realize he is an incompetent fool and that for all his bluster we aren't any safer than we were on 9/10/01 but we're a whole lot more inconvenienced, or they buy the lie.

I'm sincerely hoping for the former, but I also know mobs get stupid when they think they're being threatened.

[Dhalgren]

6. The attack won't be "staged", it will be a false-flag attack. The source

of the attack will be false, but the attack, itself, will be all too real. And the purpose of the attack will be two-fold: 1) the declaration of martial law and 2) the justification for bombing Iran to dust. What the American people think will not enter into the equation...

[warren pease]

8. Yup...

And martial law would inevitably mean suspension/cancellation of the '08 elections, which these fascists know is the only way to keep republicans in office in any significant numbers. And it may be the only way to keep their felonious asses off the scaffold.

If that doesn't happen, if all these directives haven't been all about martial law, shutting down dissent by imposing serious physical and financial penalties (i.e., seizure of liquid assets and property, jail time, possibly capital punishment), and putting an end to national elections -- corporate meddling and unverifiable vote tallies apparently not being enough to guarantee a win, per the '06 elections... if all that hasn't been a clear predictor of what these pricks are up to, or I somehow read all the signs wrong and BushCo is just a bunch of big kidders who wouldn't hurt a fly, then I'm obviously too old and dense for DU, and probably for anything but watching high school football on TV while trying not to drool all over the couch.


wp

[Individualist]

12. Agree

The MSM will be directed to tell the people what to think. They'll be spewing propaganda, touting patriotism and insisting the nation stand united as one against the evil enemy, and telling the public that martial law is the only thing keeping them safe from the "terrists".

[razors edge]

7. It will get

Bush and Chaney what they want.

That whole fighting them over there thing is so pre (enter date) thinking.

[Skip Intro]

10. It would benefit him along the same lines as 9*11 did, but to a lesser effect

If he can terrorize the people into a temporary swell of support to defeat whoever they tell us is responsible - they would do it - will do it?


I think it would work.


I cannot believe its not all laid out on some desk in some dark office.

[SoonerPride]

11. It's in a man-sized safe in Dick's office.

No shit

[greyl]

15. You make good points. The idea is crap. nt

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

16. 9/11 was the greatest day in Bush's life

I'm not suggesting he brought it on. I'm just saying that immediately after 9/11, virtually every foreign dignitary in the world called Bush to offer him support. Virtually every news station was hanging on his every word. His poll numbers were the highest they'll ever get. And he parlayed that carte blanche surge of support into a war in Afghanistan. I'm sure the memories of the high tide in his Presidency are still fresh.

Maybe you're right that people would blame him for not protecting us and for being mistaken about his "we're fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here" mantra. But if another incident like 9/11 occurred, expect the media to show lots and lots of gruesome pictures and to describe how the new terror attack on U.S. soil could not be forseen and had nothing to do with Iraq or Bush's failed policies. Expect the media to close around Bush and suggest that we need to support whoever is in the White House, because only the President, the Commander In Chief can protect us. And above all, we would be told to continue to be afraid, very afraid. After all, the American people have already had significant amounts of evidence that Bush dropped the ball on 9/11, with the PDB of August 4th, and with plenty of warnings that he received. With a complicit media, Bush never seemed to be blamed enough for that incident on September, 11th, at least not in mainstream America. Instead, it's the Iraq war that has primarily destroyed his support with the public. If Bush were to drop the ball again over a new terror attack, I don't think the media would start blaming him and instead they would be encouraing the public to support him through a trying time in America's history. And if the Republicans in the Congress had just an inkling that Bush's popularity was only slightly on the rise again, they would all come rushing back to support him and get all over television to support the President, probably along with several Democrats. We all know what most politicians are like.