Sunday, February 05, 2006
Another Conspiracy Theory...
A few days ago, I read a most interesting article on Alternet about 9/11 and whether the president of the United States deliberately did nothing to stop it for his own nefarious aim.
G. Pascal Zachary, former senior writer of The Wall Street Journal, senior writer with Business 2.0 (a monthly magazine published by Time Inc.), contributing columnist for The New Republic, The World Policy Journal, The New York Times and The San Francisco Chronicle, current professor of journalism at Stanford University, and author of many historical books also penned the spellbinding article, "Decoding the Secrets of JFK and 9/11."
Zachary, not exactly a member of the tin foil crowd, offers "the possibility that the attacks of 9/11 were encouraged by elements of the U.S. government, or that the government looked the other way, permitting al Qaida to carry out its attack on 'the homeland.'"
No one in America had as much to gain as the Bush administration from the attacks, he asserts, for by exploiting the attacks, Bush was able to increase the Republican majority in the House, retake the Senate, reassure his reelection and ultimately "define his rudderless presiden[cy]" with an Iraqi invasion that in "hindsight was the ambitious goal of his first term."
Wow, talk about a theory!
Having a much lower pedigree that Zachary, I wish to offer my own conspiracy theory, which goes as follows:
In the summer of 2001, Bush and his cronies received some vague information about possible hijackers and shrugged it off, jokingly noting how an attack on the mainland would surely make their job "a heck of a lot easier," you know, kinna like a dictator, they'd consolidate power, attack Iraq, grab some of that Middle East oil, and to boot, become a permanent majority in Congress, ha, ha, ha, ha.
And I can picture Cheney chiming in with his brand of humorless measure that some people might die, but like good soldiers they'd be dying to secure America's freedom, casualties could be rationalized as the cost of freedom, freedom from the vagaries of pesky oil and Middle East politics.
Ha, ha, ha, ha. Future talking points were formulated in jest; except Cheney was dead serious.
Of course, no one imagined the devastating scope; and besides, if truth be told, how many threats came across the president's desk, which later turned to be bush-league? And so during the fatal summer of 2001, our fearless leader did what he does best. Nothing. He and his troops sallied forth to favorite vacation jaunts until...9/11.
Bush is right when he tells the nation how everything changed after 9/11. The leisure days of endless vacations were over, at least for awhile. His administration was in grave political danger, for they'd been warned and had done nothing. They were politically liable; and the White House had to come up with a game plan and QUICK.
So to cover up their contemptuous neglect, Karl Rove immediately went into crisis mode. The White House's offensive was to demand unparalleled power over Congress, exact message discipline and cast independent voices off their ship of folly. Loyalty ranked supreme -- and onward they went.
Through messaging, Bush was able to project his own ineptness onto political enemies, beating the drum of justice, retribution and patriotism, parroted by a feckless media and press, into a frenzy of hero worship and warmongering.
For who loves its hero more than America? Without ancient history and a long list of peoples of courage and purpose, Bush's brilliant p/r bullhorn moment in New York City, endlessly replayed by media whores, was nearly as noble. The Bush story thread of president as firefighter, jet pilot and over-all military hero as Commander in Chief was simply too powerful.
And darn it, it sure felt so good to win those 2002 mid-term elections; and maybe with a few rigged Diebold machines, you know, just to make sure enough congressional seats remained safely in Republican hands, no committee appearances, under oath, would ever crop up.
For me, the 9/11 conspiracy is about hiding from Americans the truth about the Bush administration's failure to take any measure to prevent 9/11. America was attacked because Bush and his cronies were too self-absorbed, and well, too culturally and intellectually lazy.
The 9/11 commission had it right when they squarely laid to blame a "lack of imagination" for the attack. And of course, we know they weren't authorized to speak about the rest, like the cover-up. That's top secret, for the eyes of high administration officials only.
A few days ago, I read a most interesting article on Alternet about 9/11 and whether the president of the United States deliberately did nothing to stop it for his own nefarious aim.
G. Pascal Zachary, former senior writer of The Wall Street Journal, senior writer with Business 2.0 (a monthly magazine published by Time Inc.), contributing columnist for The New Republic, The World Policy Journal, The New York Times and The San Francisco Chronicle, current professor of journalism at Stanford University, and author of many historical books also penned the spellbinding article, "Decoding the Secrets of JFK and 9/11."
Zachary, not exactly a member of the tin foil crowd, offers "the possibility that the attacks of 9/11 were encouraged by elements of the U.S. government, or that the government looked the other way, permitting al Qaida to carry out its attack on 'the homeland.'"
No one in America had as much to gain as the Bush administration from the attacks, he asserts, for by exploiting the attacks, Bush was able to increase the Republican majority in the House, retake the Senate, reassure his reelection and ultimately "define his rudderless presiden[cy]" with an Iraqi invasion that in "hindsight was the ambitious goal of his first term."
Wow, talk about a theory!
Having a much lower pedigree that Zachary, I wish to offer my own conspiracy theory, which goes as follows:
In the summer of 2001, Bush and his cronies received some vague information about possible hijackers and shrugged it off, jokingly noting how an attack on the mainland would surely make their job "a heck of a lot easier," you know, kinna like a dictator, they'd consolidate power, attack Iraq, grab some of that Middle East oil, and to boot, become a permanent majority in Congress, ha, ha, ha, ha.
And I can picture Cheney chiming in with his brand of humorless measure that some people might die, but like good soldiers they'd be dying to secure America's freedom, casualties could be rationalized as the cost of freedom, freedom from the vagaries of pesky oil and Middle East politics.
Ha, ha, ha, ha. Future talking points were formulated in jest; except Cheney was dead serious.
Of course, no one imagined the devastating scope; and besides, if truth be told, how many threats came across the president's desk, which later turned to be bush-league? And so during the fatal summer of 2001, our fearless leader did what he does best. Nothing. He and his troops sallied forth to favorite vacation jaunts until...9/11.
Bush is right when he tells the nation how everything changed after 9/11. The leisure days of endless vacations were over, at least for awhile. His administration was in grave political danger, for they'd been warned and had done nothing. They were politically liable; and the White House had to come up with a game plan and QUICK.
So to cover up their contemptuous neglect, Karl Rove immediately went into crisis mode. The White House's offensive was to demand unparalleled power over Congress, exact message discipline and cast independent voices off their ship of folly. Loyalty ranked supreme -- and onward they went.
Through messaging, Bush was able to project his own ineptness onto political enemies, beating the drum of justice, retribution and patriotism, parroted by a feckless media and press, into a frenzy of hero worship and warmongering.
For who loves its hero more than America? Without ancient history and a long list of peoples of courage and purpose, Bush's brilliant p/r bullhorn moment in New York City, endlessly replayed by media whores, was nearly as noble. The Bush story thread of president as firefighter, jet pilot and over-all military hero as Commander in Chief was simply too powerful.
And darn it, it sure felt so good to win those 2002 mid-term elections; and maybe with a few rigged Diebold machines, you know, just to make sure enough congressional seats remained safely in Republican hands, no committee appearances, under oath, would ever crop up.
For me, the 9/11 conspiracy is about hiding from Americans the truth about the Bush administration's failure to take any measure to prevent 9/11. America was attacked because Bush and his cronies were too self-absorbed, and well, too culturally and intellectually lazy.
The 9/11 commission had it right when they squarely laid to blame a "lack of imagination" for the attack. And of course, we know they weren't authorized to speak about the rest, like the cover-up. That's top secret, for the eyes of high administration officials only.
// posted by Howling Latina @ 12:20 PM 
