- It's possible that terrorists are plotting to attack
the US before the November 2 elections said FBI Director Robert Mueller
without, of course, mentioning when, where and how.
-
- It is just one of a long line of non-specific warnings
in this new post-9-11 American Century. This one was reported but not hyped.
An indication, perhaps, that the US media has wizened up to conjecture
masquerading as "intelligence" following the Iraq debacle.
-
- Indeed, more and more Americans are waking up to the
fact they fell victim to the fear-based politics of the Bush White House.
Few would have agreed to a policy of preemptive strikes, the flouting of
Article 51 of the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions if 9-11 had never
taken place.
-
- Herman Goering well understood the politics of fear.
At his trial he said: "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 . . . 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."
-
- On November 2, America elects its next president. Bush
and Kerry are currently neck and neck. It is hard to believe, against the
backdrop of flag draped caskets, squalid stories of military abuses, allegations
of cronyism, unacceptable unemployment levels and one of the largest fiscal
deficits in history, that Americans haven't had enough of Bush & Co.
What is it about this administration which attracts such loyalty?
-
- Put simply, almost half the country has been indoctrinated
to believe that Bush and only Bush can keep them safe. Incredibly, many
still fall for the pretexts used to get them on board the invasion of Iraq
even though they have been officially debunked.
-
- Ignorant
-
- Others believe their president [sic] held sincere convictions
but fell foul of shoddy intelligence. That sector remains ignorant concerning
the testimony of former White House terrorism tsar Richard Clark who stated
he was pressured by Bush after 9-11 to come up with an Iraq connection.
-
- Clarke said: "The president [sic] dragged me into
a room with a couple of other people, shut the door and said, 'I want you
to find whether Iraq did this.' Now he never said, 'Make it up' but the
entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted
me to come back with a report that said Iraq did this.
-
- On September 12, 2001, says Clarke, Donald Rumsfeld was
pushing to attack Iraq, even though everyone knew Osama Bin Laden was behind
the attacks. He was so surprised that he initially thought it was a joke.
-
- Had Clarke read an article, entitled Keeping the US First:
Pentagon Would Preclude a Rival Superpower, in the March 11, 1992, Washington
Post, chuckling would have been the furthest thing from his mind that day.
-
- The article by Barton Gellman talks of a classified blueprint
intended to help "set the nation's direction for the next century"
drafted by Paul Wolfowitz, then Pentagon Undersecretary for Policy in the
previous Bush administration (currently Deputy Secretary of Defence). It
calls for concerted efforts to preserve American global military supremacy
and thwart the emergence of a rival superpower.
-
- It promulgates "the spread of democratic forms of
government and open economic systems" a mainstay of the Bush doctrine
today, and advocates "wars against Iraq and North Korea..." In
2000, Wolfowitz and other leading lights in the administration signed off
on a plan entitled 'Rebuilding America's Defences: Strategies, Forces and
Resources for a New Century.'
-
- It reads: "The United States has for decades sought
to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved
conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a
substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of
the regime of Saddam Hussein."
-
- It goes on to say that a strategic transformation of
the US military would demand enormous increases in defence budgets and
indicates that "the process of transformation is likely to be a long
one, absent some catastrophic and catalysing event - like a new Pearl Harbor."
-
- Overwhelming Support
-
- Coincidentally, a year later America suffered its second
"Pearl Harbor" when 19 alleged terrorists flew passenger planes
into the twin towers and the Pentagon.
-
- The Wolfowitz doctrine was swiftly put into effect with
the overwhelming support of the nation. In quick succession, Afghanistan
and Iraq were invaded, while Iran and Syria remain under threat. New American
bases popped up in the Caspian region, Afghanistan, Pakistan and throughout
the Gulf.
-
- At home, senators who hadn't even bothered to read the
USA PATRIOT Act rushed it through, and Americans willingly forfeited their
privacy and failed to resist the erosion of their civil liberties on the
altar of security.
-
- For those Americans willing to remove their rose coloured
spectacles when it comes to the Bush administration, the long drawn up
strategy is transparent. The so-called "War on Terror" has less
to do with bin Laden, Ayman Al Zawahiri or Abu Mussab Al Zarkawi and their
cohorts and more to do with the ambitions of individuals surrounding George
W. Bush.
-
- It's an opportunistic tale of politicians who lusted
for power and global domination - and, in some instances mega wealth -
subsequent to the fall of the Soviet Union.
-
- Unfortunately, the hostile climate they created to oil
their own agenda has caused many of the false pretexts they used to become
self-fulfilling. America today has more enemies than ever before and Iraq
has now become a magnet for terrorist groups. The al Qaeda ideology has
become a cancer with malignant cells and clones throughout the world.
-
- It is true that the clock can't be turned back but Kerry
is at least offering to do some damage control. He wants the US to be perceived
as a force for good, a respected example to the rest of the world rather
than a feared aggressive entity.
-
- He wants to tear down the walls of fortress America and
rejoin the international community as an equal partner rather than a global
bully.
-
- Sounds good not only to me but also to respondents in
eight out of ten countries recently polled who have given a resounding
'no' to four more years of George W. Bush.
-
- If only the US voters prove willing to put a lid on their
own fears and follow suit we would all sleep more easily.
-
- - Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle
East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk
-
- Copyright © 1998-2004 Online Journalô. All
rights reserved. http://onlinejournal.com/Commentary/102004Heard/102004heard.html
|
