FREEDOM WE'VE GIVEN OURS AWAY
FREEDOM WE'VE GIVEN OURS AWAY
By: Ed Henry
With thousands illegally pouring across our borders every day, Americans should quite rightly be questioning the policies of the Bush administration and the billions spent on Homeland Security. Our permissiveness and deliberate refusal to enforce existing immigration laws has been an open invitation to anyone wanting to enter our country, workers and terrorists alike. Can you blame children for becoming spoiled when the rod is blatantly spared, when they know we aren't going to do much about it?
What sort of man, particularly a president, a Commander-in-Chief with all the power that entails, would allow this illegal invasion to continue after 9/11? It raises all sorts of questions.
Maybe, Bush felt secure in the belief that another attack would not occur. And what reason would he have had to believe that? Did he somehow know that Osama ben Laden had shot his wad with the first attack and that he couldn’t muster the religious fanatics or the financial resources to do it again? Certainly it didn’t come from our intelligence branches, the same resources Bush later blamed for giving him bad information and the same resources Bush was insisting needed to be revamped and more coordinated.
Worse yet, was this possible insider information the result of some sort of collusion or deal between our president and Osama? Was Bush complicit in the death and destruction? It would certainly go a long way to explain his nonchalant reaction to the news that the World Trade Center had been destroyed while he was reading stories to a class of grammar school kids in Florida, photo-op cameras rolling all the while.
You might also remember that this fateful Tuesday in September came right on the heels of a summer of controversy over Social Security. A summer that began with Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill telling the nation there were “no viable assets” in the Social Security trust fund, progressed to almost completely unraveling the greatest financial scam known to man, and was sufficient to land almost everyone in Washington in the slammer. Did a “if you were planning something…” call to Osama put an end to that?
Accustomed to diversions, my first reaction on that fateful Tuesday was that “this time they’ve gone too far.” Trust your initial instincts. First impressions are often correct.
For a short while we had the sympathy and support of most of the world, even when we invaded Afghanistan and temporarily got rid of the Taliban. Congress immediately adopted the Patriot Act, a draconian bill that had been written and waiting in the wings, and a bill that began limiting the freedoms Americans fought and died for in World Wars.
We also tightened airport security under the assumption that terrorists would not have the brains to strike again by using some other method. That our other weaknesses such as free-wheeling truckers illegally licensed by people like Governor Ryan of Illinois, or trains, or our stockpiles of biological weapons, nuclear silos and power plants, were somehow beyond their reach.
Without any valid reason, but with a lot of hype, we then invaded the oil rich republic of Iraq where its leader was trying to upset the dollar by selling his oil for Euros. Remember the television shots of our president smirking as he leaned over the podium to tell us about “weapons of mass destruction” already in Saddam’s hands. How Saddam and Osama were buddy-buddy and that they were both religious fanatics out to destroy our “way of life.” How can you forget getting a daily dose of this claptrap for four or five months, every day of the week except Saturday when he said the same things on radio?
And then our beloved president brought us a sickening display of the worst kind of black humor by crawling around the Oval Office, looking under his desk, couch, the rug, and other nooks and crannies while repeating “no weapons of mass destruction under here.” And this is the man with the “red button” for nuclear holocaust from the world’s greatest arsenal of WMDs.
Now we’re engaged in a quagmire that’s costing us dearly while building more military bases in Iraq plus an embassy that rivals the Taj Mahal or the pyramids of Egypt and is rumored to serve as the centerpiece of intelligence and military operations elsewhere in the Middle East.
You might also remember that back in the late seventies, when the Shah of Iran was run out of town and accused of taking the Iranian treasury to the U.S., our embassy people were taken hostage and accused of running the same sort of spy operation. What goes around comes around.
Most Americans have come to the conclusion that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was a mistake. At the same time, about half of these people are disgruntled only because we haven’t won. Had the aggressive invasion been quick and decisive, had we sent enough troops to overwhelm any insurgency or simply destroyed the country with high tech “shock and awe” bombings, these people would be cheering and waving more flags from their cars. And President Bush tries to appeal to their proclivities with “we will win” (eventually) speeches. These are the same majority of Americans who believe we should bomb neighboring Iran now because they may be out to rival our own weapons of mass destruction – the same old story. Hey, it worked once didn’t it? You can fool some of the people all of the time.
Fewer Americans have the moral, spiritual, and ethical principles to believe that murdering thousands of innocent men, women, and children, torturing hundreds of suspected terrorists, abandoning treaties, and invading defenseless countries is unjust. That it’s an act of wholehearted terrorism that makes us even worse than the nineteen “fanatics” that brought us 9/11. Or that we can get away with it and that it’s even justified under extremist religious beliefs of our own. We’ve traded the Blues Brothers for the Bush Brothers on a mission from God. And it’s not funny anymore.
Fewer still believe that 9/11 was something other than the Bush story that it was an attack by religious fanatics who want to destroy all of us and that it might have had something to do with more than 725 military “peacekeeping” installations we’ve established throughout the world, our own greed and evil ways, and possibly the things we did to Islamists in places like Bosnia and the former Czechoslovakian uranium mining parts of the world. If we hadn’t worn out the phrase in Nicaragua supporting Samoza’s old oppressive National Guard, we might even call those fighting our occupational troops “freedom fighters.”
Unfortunately, this much smaller group believes “the pen is mightier than the sword – make love not war – reason and truth will prevail” and other things like that which only work against an enemy with a conscience. By their own principles, they will not fight violence with violence and are easily squashed by the ruthless.
As Bruno Bettleheim, the child psychologist who spent years in Dachau and Buckenwald put it: Why did seven million Jews walk willingly into the gas chambers when they knew exactly what was going to happen to them and they outnumbered their guards hundreds to one? If you’re going to die anyway, why not take a lesson from the passengers of the fourth hijacked plane?
But Americans have been much too busy with the World Series, the Super Bowl, the NBA, Lotto, casinos, and trying to hold onto their jobs while industries outsource, jobs move overseas, bubbles burst, pensions dwindle, and the highly paid millionaires of the media try to tell you what to eat.
Regardless of what may be the truth, Americans are doing little or nothing about what got us into this mess in the first place. Instead of recognizing the evil that’s in the hearts of our leaders, the greedy opportunities they’ve found to extend their Empire and personal wealth, the lack of concern they have for the American people, or the fact that our leaders cannot distinguish between freedom and license – we are letting them off the hook. Too few in this country have the wherewithal to hold them responsible for crimes against humanity.
While we already have enough to banish Bush and his entourage to Guantanamo, we’re dilly-dallying around with the possibility that they dissed a spook and monitored our communications.
Meanwhile, it’s obvious that the billions for Homeland Security have gone towards protecting the people in the District of Corruption and FEMA (Failing Everyone Miserably Again) cannot respond to a natural disaster or manage the reconstruction of one of our major cities.
A reshuffling of deck chairs is not going to solve any of this. No matter how loud the band plays, the problem is on the bridge where those piloting the ship of state have already run us aground. We should have mutinied long ago.
"Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact."
By: Ed Henry
With thousands illegally pouring across our borders every day, Americans should quite rightly be questioning the policies of the Bush administration and the billions spent on Homeland Security. Our permissiveness and deliberate refusal to enforce existing immigration laws has been an open invitation to anyone wanting to enter our country, workers and terrorists alike. Can you blame children for becoming spoiled when the rod is blatantly spared, when they know we aren't going to do much about it?
What sort of man, particularly a president, a Commander-in-Chief with all the power that entails, would allow this illegal invasion to continue after 9/11? It raises all sorts of questions.
Maybe, Bush felt secure in the belief that another attack would not occur. And what reason would he have had to believe that? Did he somehow know that Osama ben Laden had shot his wad with the first attack and that he couldn’t muster the religious fanatics or the financial resources to do it again? Certainly it didn’t come from our intelligence branches, the same resources Bush later blamed for giving him bad information and the same resources Bush was insisting needed to be revamped and more coordinated.
Worse yet, was this possible insider information the result of some sort of collusion or deal between our president and Osama? Was Bush complicit in the death and destruction? It would certainly go a long way to explain his nonchalant reaction to the news that the World Trade Center had been destroyed while he was reading stories to a class of grammar school kids in Florida, photo-op cameras rolling all the while.
You might also remember that this fateful Tuesday in September came right on the heels of a summer of controversy over Social Security. A summer that began with Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill telling the nation there were “no viable assets” in the Social Security trust fund, progressed to almost completely unraveling the greatest financial scam known to man, and was sufficient to land almost everyone in Washington in the slammer. Did a “if you were planning something…” call to Osama put an end to that?
Accustomed to diversions, my first reaction on that fateful Tuesday was that “this time they’ve gone too far.” Trust your initial instincts. First impressions are often correct.
For a short while we had the sympathy and support of most of the world, even when we invaded Afghanistan and temporarily got rid of the Taliban. Congress immediately adopted the Patriot Act, a draconian bill that had been written and waiting in the wings, and a bill that began limiting the freedoms Americans fought and died for in World Wars.
We also tightened airport security under the assumption that terrorists would not have the brains to strike again by using some other method. That our other weaknesses such as free-wheeling truckers illegally licensed by people like Governor Ryan of Illinois, or trains, or our stockpiles of biological weapons, nuclear silos and power plants, were somehow beyond their reach.
Without any valid reason, but with a lot of hype, we then invaded the oil rich republic of Iraq where its leader was trying to upset the dollar by selling his oil for Euros. Remember the television shots of our president smirking as he leaned over the podium to tell us about “weapons of mass destruction” already in Saddam’s hands. How Saddam and Osama were buddy-buddy and that they were both religious fanatics out to destroy our “way of life.” How can you forget getting a daily dose of this claptrap for four or five months, every day of the week except Saturday when he said the same things on radio?
And then our beloved president brought us a sickening display of the worst kind of black humor by crawling around the Oval Office, looking under his desk, couch, the rug, and other nooks and crannies while repeating “no weapons of mass destruction under here.” And this is the man with the “red button” for nuclear holocaust from the world’s greatest arsenal of WMDs.
Now we’re engaged in a quagmire that’s costing us dearly while building more military bases in Iraq plus an embassy that rivals the Taj Mahal or the pyramids of Egypt and is rumored to serve as the centerpiece of intelligence and military operations elsewhere in the Middle East.
You might also remember that back in the late seventies, when the Shah of Iran was run out of town and accused of taking the Iranian treasury to the U.S., our embassy people were taken hostage and accused of running the same sort of spy operation. What goes around comes around.
Most Americans have come to the conclusion that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was a mistake. At the same time, about half of these people are disgruntled only because we haven’t won. Had the aggressive invasion been quick and decisive, had we sent enough troops to overwhelm any insurgency or simply destroyed the country with high tech “shock and awe” bombings, these people would be cheering and waving more flags from their cars. And President Bush tries to appeal to their proclivities with “we will win” (eventually) speeches. These are the same majority of Americans who believe we should bomb neighboring Iran now because they may be out to rival our own weapons of mass destruction – the same old story. Hey, it worked once didn’t it? You can fool some of the people all of the time.
Fewer Americans have the moral, spiritual, and ethical principles to believe that murdering thousands of innocent men, women, and children, torturing hundreds of suspected terrorists, abandoning treaties, and invading defenseless countries is unjust. That it’s an act of wholehearted terrorism that makes us even worse than the nineteen “fanatics” that brought us 9/11. Or that we can get away with it and that it’s even justified under extremist religious beliefs of our own. We’ve traded the Blues Brothers for the Bush Brothers on a mission from God. And it’s not funny anymore.
Fewer still believe that 9/11 was something other than the Bush story that it was an attack by religious fanatics who want to destroy all of us and that it might have had something to do with more than 725 military “peacekeeping” installations we’ve established throughout the world, our own greed and evil ways, and possibly the things we did to Islamists in places like Bosnia and the former Czechoslovakian uranium mining parts of the world. If we hadn’t worn out the phrase in Nicaragua supporting Samoza’s old oppressive National Guard, we might even call those fighting our occupational troops “freedom fighters.”
Unfortunately, this much smaller group believes “the pen is mightier than the sword – make love not war – reason and truth will prevail” and other things like that which only work against an enemy with a conscience. By their own principles, they will not fight violence with violence and are easily squashed by the ruthless.
As Bruno Bettleheim, the child psychologist who spent years in Dachau and Buckenwald put it: Why did seven million Jews walk willingly into the gas chambers when they knew exactly what was going to happen to them and they outnumbered their guards hundreds to one? If you’re going to die anyway, why not take a lesson from the passengers of the fourth hijacked plane?
But Americans have been much too busy with the World Series, the Super Bowl, the NBA, Lotto, casinos, and trying to hold onto their jobs while industries outsource, jobs move overseas, bubbles burst, pensions dwindle, and the highly paid millionaires of the media try to tell you what to eat.
Regardless of what may be the truth, Americans are doing little or nothing about what got us into this mess in the first place. Instead of recognizing the evil that’s in the hearts of our leaders, the greedy opportunities they’ve found to extend their Empire and personal wealth, the lack of concern they have for the American people, or the fact that our leaders cannot distinguish between freedom and license – we are letting them off the hook. Too few in this country have the wherewithal to hold them responsible for crimes against humanity.
While we already have enough to banish Bush and his entourage to Guantanamo, we’re dilly-dallying around with the possibility that they dissed a spook and monitored our communications.
Meanwhile, it’s obvious that the billions for Homeland Security have gone towards protecting the people in the District of Corruption and FEMA (Failing Everyone Miserably Again) cannot respond to a natural disaster or manage the reconstruction of one of our major cities.
A reshuffling of deck chairs is not going to solve any of this. No matter how loud the band plays, the problem is on the bridge where those piloting the ship of state have already run us aground. We should have mutinied long ago.
"Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact."
posted by shummer60 at Thursday, June 01, 2006
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