“Short of a Pearl Harbor-like disaster this demonstrates the obsolescence of current systems and concepts of operations, the process of transformation will remain a slow one.” – From a report outlining the military challenges and hurdles of the new U.S. Administration (referring to a DOD need to restructure to fight “a different kind of war”) by The Project for the New American Century
“Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.” September, 2000, from A Report of The Project for the New American Century, entitled, REBUILDING AMERICA’S DEFENSES Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century
The extant miasma of the American condition, inflicted upon us and perpetrated globally by the Bush Administration is predicated upon one thing: the co-opting of the 9/11 attacks. The profound, immeasurable, and incomprehensible pain of these attacks obliterated our sense of reality, and the ensuing emotional, political, intellectual, and nationalistic reactions were conflicted by proximity to the trauma. The American President, George W. Bush, had just come back from a month long vacation, the longest since Nixon was President, his poll approval numbers were in negative territory, his proposals to privatize social security and his foreign policy of anathema toward international treaties, called “exceptionalism” (the concept that the U.S.A. is the world’s only superpower and is thusly exempt of any necessity to comply with any treaties between the rest of the world’s countries) were both receiving vociferous criticism. The embarrassing incident of the U.S. aircraft that collided with a Chinese fighter and was forced down into the People’s Republic of China in April was slowly fading. Then, instantly, like a Phoenix, Bush stood upon the smoldering rubble of the World Trade Center, now called Ground Zero, and declared prophetically, "Just three days removed from these events, Americans do not have the distance of history, but our responsibility to history is clear, to answer these attacks, and rid the world of evil."
In our national state of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, the hyperbole and implicit machinations of the words “rid the world of evil” did not resonate within our perspicacity. Bush’s usurpation of our national tragedy is used without compunction. His latest weekly radio address used 9/11 as the reason we are in Iraq. This is, of course, as inaccurate as it is unseemly. The Downing Street Minutes and other related documents merely confirm what was, or certainly should have been, obvious from the beginning of the Bush Administration’s public shift of focus away from Afghanistan, while funds (and troops) were being secretly and illegally diverted, to Iraq. This article, at the time, asserted,
In 2002, troops from the 5th Special Forces Group who specialize in the Middle East were pulled out of the hunt for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan to prepare for their next assignment: Iraq. Their replacements were troops with expertise in Spanish cultures. The CIA, meanwhile, was stretched badly in its capacity to collect, translate and analyze information coming from Afghanistan. When the White House raised a new priority, it took specialists away from the Afghanistan effort to ensure Iraq was covered.
If the DSM’s have true merit, it is that they are the catalyst that will provide the dynamic for re-scrutinizing all of the obvious fait accompli machinations of the Bush Administration during the period immediately following September 11th, 2001. In fact, invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein were high on the agenda as the Bush Team was being assembled immediately following the 2000 elections, and even before Florida had been decided. The think tank, the Project for the New American Century, now an adjunct to the Department of Defense, had been advocating such a military intervention since at least 1997 (see this letter to Clinton). And, of course, George W. had his own personal reasons for enthusiastically endorsing such an action, i.e. Hussein had tried to assassinate George the Father in Kuwait after the Gulf War. It would seem evident that 9/11 in fact provided the removal of Hussein as a priority, given that he is captured and Osama Bin Laden has not been. This is an important fact relevant to U.S. security, since Al Qaeda had had almost 4 years to undergo a metamorphosis into, what has been called, a hydra-headed organization of thousands of cells and operatives. Osama Bin Laden, in fact, is merely a symbol of what Al Qaeda used to be, and is our real or imagined personification of 9/11. The pain of that day is still so graphic and unequivocal that words such as “Nine/Eleven”, “Osama”, “Al Qaeda”, “World Trade Center”, and “War on Terror” are psychological inducements toward fear, anger, and confusion, and these words are used precisely for this reason by Bush and his cabal. Progressives, Liberals, the Democrats, and the American people need to realize that these attacks happened while these people, i.e. the Bush Administration, were at the helm. This should be a point of shame and culpability for them, not a rallying cry and excuse for every abomination that they inflict upon our foreign policies, our civil liberties, our national security, and our international reputation. We need to reclaim the tragedies of 9/11 as a point of origin for a discussion that points a finger at the Bush Administration, not as the carte blanche that they were hoping for to run rampant over the status quo of humanity.
Where are we now? We are entrenched in a country that is still called Iraq, even though it is splintered into religious sects and tribal factions, green zones, Halliburton-built contractor and troop cities, fractured infrastructures, and living conditions that are execrable. Please read the most recent post from Baghdad Burning for a unique perspective of the diurnal quotidian attempts at normalcy, and the surrounding hypocrisy and lunacy.
Detentions and assassinations, along with intermittent electricity, have also been contributing to sleepless nights. We’re hearing about raids in many areas in the Karkh half of Baghdad in particular. On the television the talk about ‘terrorists’ being arrested, but there are dozens of people being rounded up for no particular reason. Almost every Iraqi family can give the name of a friend or relative who is in one of the many American prisons for no particular reason. They aren’t allowed to see lawyers or have visitors and stories of torture have become commonplace. Both Sunni and Shia clerics who are in opposition to the occupation are particularly prone to attacks by “Liwa il Theeb” or the special Iraqi forces Wolf Brigade. They are often tortured during interrogation and some of them are found dead.
The price of building materials has gone up unbelievably, in spite of the fact that major reconstruction has not yet begun. I assumed it was because so much of the concrete and other building materials was going to reinforce the restricted areas. A friend who recently got involved working with an Iraqi subcontractor who takes projects inside of the Green Zone explained that it was more than that. The Green Zone, he told us, is a city in itself. He came back awed, and more than a little bit upset. He talked of designs and plans being made for everything from the future US Embassy and the housing complex that will surround it, to restaurants, shops, fitness centers, gasoline stations, constant electricity and water- a virtual country inside of a country with its own rules, regulations and government. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Republic of the Green Zone, also known as the Green Republic. “The Americans won’t be out in less than ten years.” Is how the argument often begins with the friend who has entered the Green Republic. “How can you say that?” Is usually my answer- and I begin to throw around numbers- 2007, 2008 maximum… Could they possibly want to be here longer? Can they afford to be here longer? At this, T. shakes his head- if you could see the bases they are planning to build- if you could see what already has been built- you’d know that they are going to be here for quite a while.
The Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root is more entrenched in Iraq than the military, and even more incompetent in their bookkeeping. They have cost the American taxpayer billions in cost overruns, losses and waste, and a “black hole” corruption. The manifold aspects to the folly of our involvement in Iraq are so numerous and substantial that any one could provide a reason for immediate withdrawal. The absolute illegality and conspiracy of our involvement in the first place, as documented by the Downing Street Memos and countless pre-war military activities, such as thousands of target bombing raids by U. S. and British planes, allocated funding for “emergency construction capabilities” at “worldwide locations,” authorized by the Defense Department portentously (see this article @ theRawStory). Our concerted efforts must now be focused toward a clear demand for and articulation of the reasons that the U.S. must
a.) cease and retract all military operations from Iraq
b.) provide and solicit humanitarian aid for Iraq to help rebuild their infrastructure
c.) outline a strategy for of strong national defense supported by an internationally responsible foreign policy
d.) outline a strategy for a strong domestic security based on a fair, strong, and responsible economic policy, and
e.) a relentless campaign against every single oppressive, regressive, divisive, and obstructionist policy that this outgoing Bush Administration has inflicted upon the United States of America and the International community, that it will continue to inflict with the help of the Republican controlled Congress and the “dominionist” Religious Right.
We can not rely on the centrist, moderate Democrats who occasionally speak up tepidly. Recently Senator Dick Durbin stood before the Senate and spoke the truth about the abominations and abysmal treatment of detainees at Guantanomo. Writers on the Left were quick to applaud and support Senator Durbin for his accurate and courageous remarks, despite the smear campaign waged by the fully-revved Republican spin/lie machine. Unfortunately, the mainstream media only reported the spin and not the full statement of Durbin or the context or the source, i.e. the FBI. I, in fact, sent an email of support to Senator Durbin, praising his courage for telling the truth. Now it is I who feel the fool for thinking one of these politicians had the courage of his convictions. There is strength in numbers, which is why we need to organize, and quickly, to counter the very effective media management of the other side. Let’s not worry about the Joes Biden and Lieberman, the waffling Kerrys and Clintons, the impotent and irrelevant Gephardt and Edwards, or the nauseating recalcitrance of writers like Friedman or Isikoff who supported the war but now seem to suggest that their perspicacity and sagacity might offer solutions to “still win this thing”. I half expect Christopher Hitchens to say in a soused insouciance that he meant “Iran”, and that he always gets those two countries confused.
The beginning of this piece offers two quotes from separate publications (and authors) by The Project for the New American Century. Anyone interested in the true genesis of the Iraq invasion and our current foreign policy of global hegemony need only spend a few hours reading through the various policy papers, publications, and reports of this insidious and insipid theorists and power mongers. It is possible the Bush players, prior to their election did not even know the extant to which their policies would be co-opted. At the 2000 Republican Convention, the main foreign policy speech at the convention was by Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. And her main applause line--"America's armed forces are not a global police force, they are not the world's 911"— The irony is as cold as liquid nitrogen.
and a few words about Torture...
There is only one thing that arouses animals more than pleasure, and that is pain. Under torture you are as if under the dominion of those grasses that produce visions. Everything you have heard told, everything you have read returns to your mind, as if you were being transported, not toward heaven, but toward hell. Under torture you say not only what the inquisitor wants, but also what you imagine might please him, because a bond (this, truly, diabolical) is established between you and him.
Umberto Eco 1929 Italian Novelist and critic
Man torturing man is a fiend beyond description. You turn a corner in the dark and there he is. You congeal into a bundle of inanimate fear. You become the very soul of anesthesia. But there is no escaping him. It is your turn now...
Henry Miller 1891-1980 American Author
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