Read this: essential to understanding the truth behind the war on terror

[JohnyCanuck]

The Making of the Enemy, Part One of Two

Only in America
Manuel Valenzuela

The coming years, like those of the present and the past, will see the continued spewing of fictionalized propaganda designed to manipulate the fears, hatreds, xenophobia and nationalistic tendencies of the population. The level of control over the masses and power over the nation in the years after 9/11 by corporatists intent on hijacking the country became, to them, a rousing success, thanks to the intense levels of fear and hatred engendered by the horrific events of that day. In the span of a few infamous days the corporatists had unleashed massive psychological warfare upon us, its effects still lingering in the minds of millions. Suddenly, those in power had become the puppeteers of the citizenry, free to manage us as they saw fit, our fragile and damaged psychologies traumatized, our thinking, human minds replaced by our more primitive, mammalian instincts and behaviors. An entire nation had succumbed, thanks to television, to images and emotions no people had ever witnessed, repeated over and over and over again. The making of America’s new enemy had begun.

The manufacture, marketing and dissemination of bogeymen enemies, both real and fictional, for a long time endemic in American society, has always worked to perfection, becoming the inertia used to control the population. It becomes the energy needed to maintain America’s permanent wartime economy. The creation of unseen bogeymen into supernatural evildoers fits the perfect mold of how the American citizenry has been brainwashed over the years through the use of Hollywood movies and television, with the constant themes of good versus evil, of fantasy and sensationalism, and of course the always needed happy ending, where the good guy always triumphs over the villain.

The struggle against America’s enemy, conveniently chosen and designed to fit the policies and goals of those in power, is purposefully made out to be like a struggle in a typical Hollywood film of good and evil characters, where America is seen as the force of good confronting the evildoer afflicting the world, a hero that ultimately, in the end, will triumph, leading to the happy ending that in reality rarely, if ever, bears fruit. Yet to the reprogrammed mind of the average American, our conception of real life rewired, our brainwaves reconfigured through the incessant fictions and altered states of reality bombarded into our heads by movies and sitcoms, the battle of superhero and evildoer must continue, because America can do no wrong, it is the shining beacon on a hill, the savior of humankind, incapable of committing human evil, fighting forces intent on destroying the nation. Inevitably, in our warped mind good always triumphs over evil, the hero always gets the girl and normalcy eventually returns to life.

To say that televised fantasy bears no resemblance to real human outcomes is an understatement, yet in a fictional war that remains but a fleeting illusion in the minds of the population, becoming more intangible than visible, hardly affecting the daily lives of the majority, the deception works like magic thanks to the blitzkrieg of propaganda sent out through the airwaves. In a sense, the so-called war against America’s enemy becomes a Hollywood production, existing in the conscious of the people but never truly being felt, its puppeteers hiding its reality and its truth, the keepers at the gate filtering what needs to be seen and what does not. Our reality is what they make it to be, after all.

http://valenzuelasveritas.blogspot.com/2005/12/making-of-enemy-part-one-of-two.html

The Making of the Enemy, Part Two
The Myth of the Superhuman Enemy

There is purpose behind having enemies, for their existence is the backbone of the corporatists. Indeed, there is a method behind their madness. Having enemies means having control both of fear and hatred of the people, as well as having control of the masses along with their animalistic emotions. Psychology can be manipulated at the push of a few buttons; an entire nation can be mobilized toward war in the time it takes two skyscrapers to be imploded. Nationalism and xenophobia make blind rational thought; ignorance makes deaf the sounds of wisdom.

The use of enemies distracts the minds of the people from their daily lives and chains truth to the dungeons of corporatists and neocons. The silhouette of the enemy helps supply the armies of invasion and occupation, it assists in mobilizing the nation’s economy into perpetual war readiness, and it distracts the people as their treasure is pillaged, just as it demands patience of the citizenry in the face of utter debacle.

The abstract illusion of the unseen enemy forces its disseminators and marketers to put a human face on clandestine evildoers. It is a technique used by the keepers at the gate to personify and insert a sense of reality to a war of fiction, thereby granting human flesh to illusion and cementing the idea of real struggle and real evil in the eyes of the masses. The appearance must be made to exist that the enemy is real, a human being whose evil ways must be stopped, regardless of the consequences.

Yet while the faces are real, the deeds and actions of the enemy’s masterminds are but the stuff of Hollywood legend, making of mere mortals demons of unnatural superhuman strength and ability, seemingly unable to be killed, leading their armies with the intelligence of gods and the leadership of generals. Present in multiple theatres of operation, these evildoers extraordinaire always evade capture, appearing to escape death and injury, as always inflicting damage upon our soldiers. Not even a $25 million bounty on their heads is of benefit to America’s soldiers and mercenaries.

http://valenzuelasveritas.blogspot.com/2005/12/making-of-enemy-part-two.html

While reading the above bear in mind that the US played a major role in stirring up radical Islam in the first place. In Afghanistan the US suppled millions of dollars worth of jihad preaching schoolbooks in the 1990s and beyond. You can see how it all fits into the pattern of creating an enemy that you can then use as jihadist bogeymen to scare the Foxified and CNNized population into accepting there really is a need for them to sacrifice their sons and daughters to be killed and maimed in a war against the irrational terrorist monsters.

Washington Post investigators report that during the past twenty years the US has spent millions of dollars producing fanatical schoolbooks, which were then distributed in Afghanistan.

"The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then as the Afghan school system's core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the American-produced books..." -- Washington Post, 23 March 2002 (1)

According to the Post the U.S. is now "...wrestling with the unintended consequences of its successful strategy of stirring Islamic fervor to fight communism."

So the books made up the core curriculum in Afghan schools. And what were the unintended consequences? The Post reports that according to unnamed officials the schoolbooks "steeped a generation in violence."

How could this result have been unintended? Did they expect that giving fundamentalist schoolbooks to schoolchildren would make them moderate Muslims?

http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/jihad.htm

Remember what Herman Goering said during the Nuremburg trials:

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.htm

Finally the words of James Madison sum it all up in one concise sentence.

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

[shance]

1. And it will come in the guise of fighting terrorism as well.

n/t

[JohnyCanuck]

2. That seems to be the way it's trending. n/t

[stickdog]

3. true dat (nt)

[CJCRANE]

4. Neoncons are "creating reality" and

"shaping circumstances" (according to their jargon).

[CJCRANE]

5. Relationship between Al-Qaeda and Neocons

is like that between a criminal and a corrupt cop: they're on opposite sides but they both need each other and more crime is better for both of them.

[rman]

7. I'd say a corrupt cop is a criminal,

so they're hardly on opposite sides.

[CJCRANE]

15. Yes and no...

in the sense that:

yes, a corrupt cop is also a criminal BUT until he's found out he has the appearance of being one of the good guys.

[AntiFascist]

13. Excellent comparison! n/t

[JohnyCanuck]

6. Television and the hive mind

In the context of what Valenzuela is saying in his two blog entries linked above regarding the government's use of fear and terror to manipulate and control the popluation, this article on how Television acts on the brain is quite revealing. It does help explain how the corporately owned mainstream US Television media was as effective as it was in manipulating public opinion in the runup to the war (granted that there were still millions that saw through the bullshit).

TELEVISION AND THE HIVE MIND
by Mack White


Experiments conducted by researcher Herbert Krugman reveal that, when a person watches television, brain activity switches from the left to the right hemisphere. The left hemisphere is the seat of logical thought. Here, information is broken down into its component parts and critically analyzed. The right brain, however, treats incoming data uncritically, processing information in wholes, leading to emotional, rather than logical, responses. The shift from left to right brain activity also causes the release of endorphins, the body's own natural opiates--thus, it is possible to become physically addicted to watching television, a hypothesis borne out by numerous studies which have shown that very few people are able to kick the television habit.

This numbing of the brain's cognitive function is compounded by another shift which occurs in the brain when we watch television. Activity in the higher brain regions (such as the neo-cortex) is diminished, while activity in the lower brain regions (such as the limbic system) increases. The latter, commonly referred to as the reptile brain, is associated with more primitive mental functions, such as the "fight or flight" response. The reptile brain is unable to distinguish between reality and the simulated reality of television. To the reptile brain, if it looks real, it is real. Thus, though we know on a conscious level it is "only a film," on a conscious level we do not--the heart beats faster, for instance, while we watch a suspenseful scene. Similarly, we know the commercial is trying to manipulate us, but on an unconscious level the commercial nonetheless succeeds in, say, making us feel inadequate until we buy whatever thing is being advertised--and the effect is all the more powerful because it is unconscious, operating on the deepest level of human response. The reptile brain makes it possible for us to survive as biological beings, but it also leaves us vulnerable to the manipulations of television programmers.

It is not just commercials that manipulate us. On television news as well, image and sound are as carefully selected and edited to influence human thought and behavior as in any commercial. The news anchors and reporters themselves are chosen for their physical attractiveness--a factor which, as numerous psychological studies have shown, contributes to our perception of a person's trustworthiness. Under these conditions, then, the viewer easily forgets--if, indeed, the viewer ever knew in the first place--that the worldview presented on the evening news is a contrivance of the network owners--owners such as General Electric (NBC) and Westinghouse (CBS), both major defense contractors. By molding our perception of the world, they mold our opinions. This distortion of reality is determined as much by what is left out of the evening news as what is included--as a glance at Project Censored's yearly list of top 25 censored news stories will reveal. If it's not on television, it never happened. Out of sight, out of mind.

Under the guise of journalistic objectivity, news programs subtly play on our emotions--chiefly fear. Network news divisions, for instance, frequently congratulate themselves on the great service they provide humanity by bringing such spectacles as the September 11 terror attacks into our living rooms. We have heard this falsehood so often, we have come to accept it as self-evident truth. However, the motivation for live coverage of traumatic news events is not altruistic, but rather to be found in the central focus of Cantril's War of the Worlds research--the manipulation of the public through fear.

http://www.mackwhite.com/tv.html

Brainwashing America
by Dr. Norman Livergood

<snip>

In an earlier article, I reviewed the varied aspects of personality profiling and simulation. While serving as Head of the Artificial Intelligence Department at the U.S. Army War College, 1993-1995, I conducted studies on profiling, psychological programming, and brainwashing. I explored and developed personality simulation systems, an advanced technology used in military war games, FBI profiling, political campaigning, and advertising. Part of my discovery was that:

* unenlightened human minds are combinations of infantile beliefs and emotional patterns

* these patterns can be simulated in profiling systems

* these profiling systems can be used to program and control people

Personality simulation systems are being used to create political campaigns that apply voter profiles to control their voting behavior. TV commercials and programs use personality simulation to profile viewers to control their purchasing and viewing behaviors. And sophisticated propaganda and brainwashing techniques are being used by the Bush junta to keep American citizens under control.

http://www.hermes-press.com/brainwash1.htm

[No Exit]

8. So, gosh, do you even think there are terrorists??

What about the U.S.S. Cole? What about the 1993 WTC attempt? What about 9/11? What about the embassy bombings??

Gosh, you don't suppose those were all just the work of CRIMINALS?? You know--those bad people that are found in every society? :sarcasm:

[JohnyCanuck]

9. Yes they are terrorists

Yes they are terrorists, and the fact that there are terrorists can be very useful if you have plans for destroying a democratic form of government and replacing it with one party rule by a rich and extremely powerful elite. (As was attempted at least once before in US history.
Read here about how a patriotic Marine Corps General, Smedley Butler, foild a coup attempt to overthrow FDR in 1934 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/27/112936/440 )

They conspirators don't have to be in charge and actually run each terrorist group or individual terrorist. It suffices, just get the ball rolling and prod it along judiciously from time to time perhaps and then the process feeds on itself and snowballs.

Isn't it interesting how the US defeated the commie Soviet bogeyman, but in doing so it also played a vital role in establishing the new bogeyman now used to instill fear in the population and disabuse them of the notion that there is no longer a need for trillions of dollars to be spent maintaining the armed forces and the US "defense" industries. Who can afford to build schools, universities, libraries and hospitals when the terrorists monsters are coming to destroy us? That money better be spent in building bunker busters to kill the terrorists in their underground caves and hideouts or boosting the budget of the NSA so it can monitor more of our conversations and catch the evildoers before they can do us in.

Washington Post investigators report that during the past twenty years the US has spent millions of dollars producing fanatical schoolbooks, which were then distributed in Afghanistan.

"The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then as the Afghan school system's core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the American-produced books..." -- Washington Post, 23 March 2002 (1)

According to the Post the U.S. is now "...wrestling with the unintended consequences of its successful strategy of stirring Islamic fervor to fight communism."

So the books made up the core curriculum in Afghan schools. And what were the unintended consequences? The Post reports that according to unnamed officials the schoolbooks "steeped a generation in violence."

How could this result have been unintended? Did they expect that giving fundamentalist schoolbooks to schoolchildren would make them moderate Muslims?

http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/jihad.htm

Certainly there are terrorists out gunning for Uncle Sam in, but it seems Uncle Sam certainly played a role in starting the terrorism ball rolling in Afghanistan in the first place, and now through its foreign policy ensures the terrorism ball gets nudged further along before it even has a chance to slow down (eg invading an oil rich Arab country that was no threat to the USA, raining white phosphorous and napalm on its citizens, torturing, harassing and demeaning its citizens, poisoning their land with depleted uranium etc).

Once the fires are lit, others are then drawn into terrorism without needing the direct intervention of secret services, shadowy government agencies etc. However, the ruling class now has another ready made enemy to keep its own population in an appropriate state of fear and discombobulation, so when it comes to issues like civil liberties, freedom of speech etc, the sheeple will be on side and much more likely to willingly allow democratic principles, their civil liberties, freedom of speech etc. to take a back seat to fighting the war on terror. A war which they believe through the magic of CNN and Fox was entirely forced on their country by the crazy, irrational, evildoing fanatics with no recognition that their own government played a leading role in creating the crazy fanatics in the first place.

Valenzuela explains it much more eloquently than I can.

What better scapegoat than the Arab/Persian population if one wants to conquer the resources of the Middle East and Central Asia? What greater marketing ploy could be manufactured to make enemies of the same people whose resources you desire?

And, with the war on terror acting as a vicious circle of recruitment, by becoming a self fulfilling prophesy, having violence beget violence, with more and more Arabs incensed at the actions of America, ready to join in jihad where only few extremists existed before, (Al-Qaeda has become a mass movement, franchised and claimed by many insurgents, most of whom have never met a real member of the group) thereby creating ever more non-fictitious enemies, the military-energy industrial complex has the capacity and will to continue the war into perpetuity, using the anger on the Muslim street, along with the fear and hatred of Americans, to further its own interests, exploiting both Muslim and American, pitting one against the other, creating fictitious conflict where none exists, concocting enemies out of two peoples whose similarities as humans quashes our differences of culture. (my emphasis /jc)

For a citizenry made to fear an alien people of which little is known about, with hatred and xenophobia running through their veins, programmed by the keepers at the gate to demand blood and death, can, at the push of a few psychological buttons, be mobilized into a war frenzy where the human brain, thinking, analytical and logical, is set aside and replaced by our primitive, mammalian brain, full of primordial behaviors and emotions. Once the population’s collective conscious has mutated according to the designs of their puppeteers the march towards war, invasion and occupation can commence.

http://valenzuelasveritas.blogspot.com/2005/12/making-of-enemy-part-one-of-two.html

See also the views of the philosopher Leo Strauss who is referred to in some circles as the "Father of the Neocons".

The Despoiling of America

<snip>

Strauss’s teaching incorporated much of Machiavelli’s. Significantly, his philosophy is unfriendly to democracy—even antagonistic. At the same time Strauss upheld the necessity for a national religion not because he favored religious practices, but because religion in his view is necessary in order to control the population. Since neo-conservatives influenced by Strauss are in control of the Bush administration, I have prepared a brief list that shows the radical unchristian basis of neo-conservatism. I am indebted to Shadia Drury’s book (Leo Strauss and the American Right) and published interviews for the following:

First: Strauss believed that a leader had to perpetually deceive the citizens he ruled.

Secondly: Those who lead must understand there is no morality, there is only the right of the superior to rule the inferior.

Thirdly: According to Drury, Religion “is the glue that holds society together.”<40> It is a handle by which the ruler can manipulate the masses. Any religion will do. Strauss is indifferent to them all.

Fourthly: “Secular society…is the worst possible thing,” because it leads to individualism, liberalism, and relativism, all of which encourage dissent and rebellion. As Drury sums it up: “You want a crowd that you can manipulate like putty.”<41>

Fifthly: “Strauss thinks that a political order can be stable only if it is united by an external threat; and following Machiavelli, he maintains that if no external threat exists, then one has to be manufactured.”<42>(my emphasis /jc)

Sixthly: “In Strauss’s view, the trouble with liberal society is that it dispenses with noble lies and pious frauds. It tries to found society on secular rational foundations.”

http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm
(Scroll down to see article)

Cheney is reputed to have said the war on terror will not end in our lifetime. At best the prognostications are that it will go on for years. Hmm, I wonder what James Madison would have thought about that.

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended. Its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war . . . and in the degeneracy of manners and morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

James Madison, April 20, 1795

[No Exit]

19. Thank you for saying it so well.

The reason I asked you that inane question was b/c I was asked the same question, more or less, by someone else on here. The occasion: I had just said, essentially, that a lot of this "terrorism" crap is just, well, hooey. Someone then asked me if I believed in "terrorism" at all.

And the only "terrorism" in which I believe is that which you have described. It can be very useful--so useful, in fact, that certain persons are not above using agents provocateur to urge it on when they feel the need for an "event".

And the point about how after the cold war ended, "they" needed a new "enemy"--now, that is key to any understanding of what is going on currently. Once again, thanks.

[WinkyDink]

17. There were earlier plane hijackings, bombings in Europe, assassinations:

NO Western European government turned Fascist as a result of these late-1960's-1980's events. E.g., I was in the Bologna train station a year after the terrorist bombing there; there were no heavy-handed security guards (if any), no asking for I.D. just to take a train, etc. E.g., I was in London when there was a terrorist attack that resulted in a policewoman's murder; I walked directly past the building with no hassle, the day after. (Now, of course, Blairbush is videotaping every. single. vehicle. and. pedestrian .)
Indeed, Europe opened its borders.

[No Exit]

20. So then how come WE have to "turn fascist" in order to combat

this "terrorism" stuff?

My guess: much of it is contrived, and we happen to have some very power-hungry people who are trying to further consolidate their already-overblown power.

[Peace Patriot]

10. I certainly agree that Valenzuela's thesis describes what the...

Corporate Rulers have been TRYING to do. But the question is, is it working? And I think the answer is "no," and, for evidence, I would use my own feeling about the American people, bolstered by the Corporate Rulers' own issue/opinion/approval polls. For instance, 58% of the American people opposed the Iraq war before the invasion, in Feb. '03. 58%! That number dipped only once, during the few weeks of the invasion, with US troops at max risk, then went right back up to nearly 60%, where it remained throughout the election. And it is even higher today. 63% of the American people oppose torture "under any circumstances" (May '04). These polls--across the board, over several years--reveal a public that is amazingly resistant to propaganda. So I think we need to look elsewhere for an explanation of HOW we are being oppressed--of how a fascist junta gained control.

I think it's very, very, very, VERY important that we diagnose this situation correctly, and strategize on the basis of reality--not on our fears, or on the basis of precedents that we know about, and especially not on the basis of our Corporate Rulers' planted ideas and illusions that other Americans have bought into this fascist junta's lies, in anything like a majority. Frankly, I'm convinced that the rightwing is very much a minority, and is not much bigger than the rightwing minority has ever been (at most, 40%), but these views are given a Big Trumpet, by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies, way out of proportion to their numbers, thus giving members of the progressive majority the feeling that we are alone, isolated, remnants of a gone world of progress and rational thought--a world that wanted peace and justice. This is the Corporate Rulers most destructive illusion, because not many people realize that they have been sucked in by this.

These lone, isolated progressives--the vast majority of Americans--look at the election results, and feel confirmed in the Corporate illusion that they are not in the majority any more. But neither do they realize--they may suspect, but they don't have the facts--that election results have ALSO been manipulated, quite directly by the Bushite corporations that tabulated our votes in 2004 (and 2002), using "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code in the new electronic voting systems, with virtually no audit/recount controls; and ALSO, by the corporate news monopolies who, acting in concert, on election night 2004, FALSIFIED their own exit polls (Kerry won) to "fit" the "official result" of the Bushite corporations' secret formulae (Bush won)--thus depriving the American people of major evidence of election fraud (the real exit poll numbers).

So, what I am saying is that the American people are sticking stubbornly to their progressive beliefs, despite relentless propaganda--as all the polls show--but have been disempowered, and, above all, DISENFRANCHISED.

As to strategy for overcoming this junta, we have one VERY CLEAR thing that we must do: election reform. Getting these rightwing corporations out of our election system; stopping the corporate privatization of our elections; and restoring our right to vote. Transparent elections are ESSENTIAL to democracy, and we CANNOT KNOW the will of the country without them--except by indirect means, inference, polls, gut feelings and guesses (with even the best of us basing our guesses to some extent on what the Corporate Rulers WANT US TO BELIEVE about what Americans think).

It is certainly a strange irony that the Corporate news monopolies poll people, and know quite well what most of us think of all this, yet collude with a fascist government--even the New York Times!--in plain defiance of most peoples' views. They do publish these polls, but you have to dig for them, and they are almost never given prominence, discussed or analyzed by Corporate commentators.

I was toying with a thesis about clever mass hypnosis myself, at a certain point. I remember thinking, about that movie "The Fourth of July" (good flick, alien invasion, Americans save the world), that it was psyops prep for 9/11, and also, that the TV series "24 hours" (in which the president is compelled, by a clever script, to torture his best friend), was prep for US use of torture.

I have no doubt that those productions and scripts--and many like them--are being created by the Corporate Rulers for the purpose on inuring us to war (mass slaughter) and humongous military budgets (the main goal). Even "West Wing"--a supposed progressive show (of very high quality, as entertainment) has been used this way. (The president orders the assassination of a foreign leader "terrorist" and, although it's illegal and wrong, almost everybody thinks he's cool for doing it and that it was justified. No arrest. No trial. No habeas corpus. Prez believes everything that the military and the CIA tell him.*)

I have rejected the brainwashing thesis, for the most part--as to our immediate circumstances (the Bush junta). I think Americans have not bought into this fascist propaganda and policy. I think they tried desperately to register their objection to it in the 2004 election, and were thwarted. And I think the evidence for the 2004 election overwhelmingly supports this.

There is nothing vague and ephemeral happening here--brainwashing, mass hypnosis techniques, vapors of the imagination that are hard to get hold of and fight against. The oppression is very specific and concrete: outright election fraud.

I DO think we are living in a mass delusion that huge military spending "protects" us. When was the last time that our big military machine actually "defended" us? They couldn't even defend the Pentagon on 9/11! All they do is MANUFACTURE phony wars and exaggerate our "enemies." In that sense, our Corporate Rulers (war profiteers all) do have us by the brainwaves. It is this very military machine that is such a temptation to fascists! We truly need to dismantle it. But, in the meantime, the people of this country reject UNJUST war and MISUSE of U.S soldiers, and they have not been listened to, and their votes have been 'disappeared' just as surely as the names of the uncharged prisoners who have been 'disappeared' into torture dungeons in eastern Europe.

There is also a sort of grand, overarching illusion--created by the corporate news monopolies--that our democracy is "working," despite rather compelling evidence to the contrary. It IS very difficult for people to believe all three of the following things: that our elections are rigged, that the news organizations colluded in that rigging, and that the Democratic Party leadership went along with it--even though all three things are objectively and demonstrably true. But I put this down more to people's need to have hope ("maybe we'll beat 'em in the NEXT election"), than to any real belief in what they see on TV or read in corporate news rags. What they see on TV, and hear on the radio, and read in the news rags, is so out of touch with reality, and with their own lives, that they don't give it much credence. But they remain plugged into it (disbelieving much of what they see/hear) because there isn't much else. Our democracy is NOT working. It is broken. And most people don't have a clue what's wrong--that it is the very specific and deliberate destruction of our election system that must be fixed--because they have been completely denied that knowledge. It therefore requires word of mouth (including the internet) to get it around, and that takes time.

There are now important movements in many states and localities to hold election officials accountable for the purchase of this electiion theft machinery--egregiously non-transparent, insecure and hackable electronic voting systems, controlled by private rightwing corporations--to obatin election verification tools (paper ballot backup, for instance), and to monitor and challenge elections. And there have been important successes in Florida, North Carolina, California, and other states. There is also a bill in Congress, with 169 co-sponsors (Russ Holt HR 550) that would stop the corporate privatization of our elections, and reverse it, by, among other things, banning undisclosed software. This movement is still in its infancy, but its goal--transparent elections--is obviously democracy's bottom line, and only the corrupt, the devious and the insane can hold otherwise. (Some maintain--and I agree--that we should return to hand-counted paper ballots, but you've got to start somewhere getting transparency and verifiable vote counts--if, for no other reason, to gather evidence--in this entrenched, corporate-dominated system.)

It's amazing how Americans' eyes light up, and how bouncy their step becomes, when they understand a problem. Our faith in our ability to fix things is unbounded. That's one of the reasons I love my country so much. I firmly believe that, IF we can restore our right to vote, we will fix this country right back up, very quickly, and make it a better country than it was before. If.

-----

*(West Wing also entirely slanders anti-globalization protesters, in the most unintelligent script Sorkin ever wrote--pure corporate propaganda.)

[greiner3]

11. I still say;

That either the event was known and not acted upon, or 9-11 was a staged production of the US security cabal. It was only a few months before that a US was plane caused the downing of a Chinese national war plane and it was not THAT close, but we could have gone to war over that. b***co got his feet wet on that and they liked the feeling of other people dieing on their watch.

[Peace Patriot]

12. I think the key to 9/11 is their failure to protect the Pentagon and our..

...nation's capitol--with nearly an hour's notice. Where was NORAD? Where was the Air Force? They have standard operation procedures for just this emergency--off-course commercial aircraft--the first of which is getting jets next to the off-course plane for visual contact, and until the situation is resolved, they remain there, flying next to the rogue plane, awaiting orders, and prepared to shoot it down if necessary. These SOPs failed on 9/11, and only on that day. Three months earlier, in June '01, Donald Rumsfeld took the unusual step of pulling all NORAD decisions personally into his own hands--and then was AWOL during the critical hour after the WTC was hit. There has never been satisfactory explanation for the failure to scramble jets for visual contact. Our nation's capitol was wide open to attack.

It's the stray thread in the tapestry of deception. Pull this thread, and I think the whole thing will unravel.

It's undoubtedly true that OBL/Al Q thoroughly hate our gov't, and have plotted against us--even while the Bush Cartel/CIA was arming and funding them in Afghanistan. And it's possible that they are among the 9/11 perps. But the failure of our every system of detection and defense all point to the cooperation of insiders--from the FBI firing of John O'Neil (Yemen Saudi/Al Q money connection), and the denial of FBI agent Coleen Rowley's request to open Zacharias Moussaoui's computer, to "watch list" Saudis running around our country renting apartments, going to bars, and taking flight lessons (to fly but not to land planes), and leaving a trail a mile wide--to the Presidential Daily Briefings and repeated warnings from other countries that were ignored--to the unique failure of NORAD/Air Force procedure on that day, and many other inexplicable failures and odd events (such as the bin Laden family getting out the country before being questioned). I don't buy "incompetent" re 9/11, any more than I buy "incompetence" on Iraq. And Bush/Cheney's stonewalling of the 9/11 Commission adds to the suspicions. Any prior prez/v-p of this Republic would have led the investigation themselves, and would not have rested until "heads rolled" for failure to defend the capitol or any part of the US from attack. And where the hell are the anthrax perps? What the hell is wrong with this country that no one has been arrested or convicted for perpetrating either of these terrible attacks, or for negligence or worse in permitting them to happen?

I have to agree with you, greiner3. Things are not right. Things are not right in a very big way. And they all go back to 9/11 and the dictatorial usurpation of power and lack of accountability that has been occurring ever since.

Election fraud may seem...I don't know...anachronistic? --by comparison to other tyrannies, such as pervasive illegal spying on Americans, or torture--but it IS the ONLY mechanism of real power and sovereignty that we have, and, we MUST fight to get it back, while we still can. Without it, we are lost.

[CJCRANE]

16. Yes it could be key...

because the WTC towers are private property (or at least not federal property) so any attack on the WTC could be construed as a criminal matter but an attack on military and or govt installations would I guess have to be considered as an act of war (even though al-Qaeda is not actually a nation).

Even if 9-11 was LIHOP it could've been justified from a strategic viewpoint if they actually got Bin Laden and put an end to al-Qaeda. But the diversion to Iraq was a major strategic blunder (from any normal mainstream political viewpoint). The proper priority should've been: Al-Qaeda, North Korea, Iran, Iraq.

[Clara T]

14. Four Vital Missions

Four Vital Missions


PNAC members believe that there are four vital missions "demanded by U. S. global leadership," but claim that "current American armed forces are ill-prepared to execute" these missions.

"Homeland Defense. America must defend its homeland. During the Cold War, nuclear deterrence was the key element in homeland defense; it remains essential. But the new century has brought with it new challenges. While reconfiguring its nuclear force, the United States also must counteract the effects of the proliferation of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction that may soon allow lesser states to deter U.S. military action by threatening U.S. allies and the American homeland itself. Of all the new and current missions for U.S. armed forces, this must have priority.

"Large Wars. Second, the United States must retain sufficient forces able to rapidly deploy and win multiple simultaneous large-scale wars and also to be able to respond to unanticipated contingencies in regions where it does not maintain forward-based forces. This resembles the 'two-war' standard that has been the basis of U.S. force planning over the past decade. Yet this standard needs to be updated to account for new realities and potential new conflicts.

"Constabulary Duties. Third, the Pentagon must retain forces to preserve the current peace in ways that fall short of conduction major theater campaigns. A decade’s experience and the policies of two administrations have shown that such forces must be expanded to meet the needs of the new, long-term NATO mission in the Balkans, the continuing no-fly-zone and other missions in Southwest Asia, and other presence missions in vital regions of East Asia. These duties are today’s most frequent missions, requiring forces configured for combat but capable of long-term, independent constabulary operations.

"Transform U.S. Armed Forces. Finally, the Pentagon must begin now to exploit the so-called 'revolution in military affairs,' sparked by the introduction of advanced technologies into military systems; this must be regarded as a separate and critical mission worthy of a share of force structure and defense budgets" (p. 6).

"In conclusion, it should be clear that these four essential missions for maintaining American military preeminence are quite separate and distinct from one another – none should be considered a 'lesser included case' of another, even though they are closely related and may, in some cases, require similar sorts of forces. Conversely, the failure to provide sufficient forces to execute these four missions must result in problems for American strategy. The failure to build missile defenses will put America and her allies at grave risk and compromise the exercise of American power abroad. Conventional forces that are insufficient to fight multiple theater wars simultaneously cannot protect American global interests and allies. Neglect or withdrawal from constabulary missions will increase the likelihood of larger wars breaking out and encourage petty tyrants to defy American interests and ideals. And the failure to prepare for tomorrow’s challenges will ensure that the current Pax Americana comes to an early end" (p. 13).

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3249.htm


We live in an era of the endless representation, the mediated existence. Where nothing is real and we can be largely unaware of our own circumstances. Life as seen through the camera lens. We prefer it this way now- The sign is more important than the thing, the image more real and enduring than the fact. A cult-ure that exists with a manufactured and false consciousness. We are thoroughly corporatized and the first set of peoples living a branded (un)reality.

[RBHam]

18. Excellent post.

This is what I've been saying since the Carlyle-Halliburton Administration staged their own Reichstag Fire on September 11th, 2001.

What amazes me is how many otherwise intelligent and rational people fall for it so easily.