- This is a wake-up call that we are about to have another
9/11-WMD experience.
-
- The wake-up call is unlikely to be effective, because
the American attitude toward government changed fundamentally seventy-odd
years ago. Prior to the 1930s, Americans were suspicious of government,
but with the arrival of the Great Depression, Tojo, and Hitler, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt convinced Americans that government existed to protect
them from rapacious private interests and foreign threats. Today, Americans
are more likely to give the benefit of the doubt to government than they
are to family members, friends, and those who would warn them about the
government's protection.
-
- Intelligent observers are puzzled that President Bush
is persisting in a futile and unpopular war at the obvious expense of his
party's electoral chances in 2008.
- In the July 18 Los Angeles Times ("Bush the Albatross"),
Ronald Brownstein reminds us that Bush's behavior is disastrous for his
political party. Unpopular presidents "have consistently undercut
their party in the next election." Brownstein reports that "88%
of voters who disapproved of the retiring president's job performance voted
against his party's nominee in past elections. . . . On average, 80% of
voters who disapproved of a president's performance have voted against
his party's candidates even in House races since 1986."
- Brownstein notes that with Bush's dismal approval rating,
this implies a total wipeout of the Republicans in 2008.
-
- A number of pundits have concluded that the reason the
Democrats have not brought a halt to Bush's follies is that they expect
Bush's unpopular policies to provide them with a landslide victory next
year.
-
- There is a problem with this reasoning. It assumes that
Cheney, Rove,and the Republicans are ignorant of these facts or are content
for the Republican Party to be destroyed after Bush has his warmonger-police
state fling. "After me, the deluge."
-
- Isn't it more likely that Cheney and Rove have in mind
events that will, once again, rally the people behind President Bush and
the Republican Party that is fighting the "war on terror" that
the Democrats "want to lose"?
-
- Such events could take a number of forms. As even diehard
Republican Patrick J. Buchanan observed on July 17, with three US aircraft
carrier battle groups in congested waters off Iran, another Tonkin Gulf
incident could easily be engineered to set us at war with Iran. If Bush's
intentions were merely to bomb a nuclear reactor, he would not need three
carrier strike forces.
- Lately, the administration has switched to blaming Iran
for the war in Iraq. The US Senate has already lined up behind the latest
lie with a 97-0 vote to condemn Iran.
-
- Alternatively, false flag "terrorist" strikes
could be orchestrated in the US. The Bush administration has already infiltrated
some dissident groups and encouraged them to participate in terrorist talk,
for which they were arrested. It is possible that the administration could
provoke some groups to actual acts of violence.
-
- Many Americans dismiss suspicion of their government
as treasonous, and most believe conspiracy to be impossible "because
someone would talk."
- There is no basis in any known fact for this opinion.
-
- According to polls, 36% of the American people disbelieve
the 9/11 Commission Report. Despite this lack of confidence, and despite
the numerous omissions and errors in the report, it has proven impossible
to have an independent investigation of 9/11 or to examine the official
explanation in public debate. Even experts and people with a lifetime
of distinguished public service are dismissed as "conspiracy theorists,"
"kooks," and "traitors" if they question the official
explanation of 9/11. This despite the fact that war in the Middle East,
a long-planned goal of Bush's neoconservative administration, could not
have been initiated without a "new Pearl Harbor."
-
- That powerfully constructed steel buildings could suddenly
turn to dust because they were struck by two flimsy aluminum airliners
and experienced small fires on a few floors that burned for a short time
appears unexceptionable to a majority of Americans.
-
- Moreover, people have talked. Hundreds of them. Firefighters,
police, janitors, and others report hearing and experiencing a series of
explosions in upper floors and massive explosions in the underground basements.
This eyewitness testimony was kept under wraps for three or more years
until the official explanation had taken root. The oral histories were
finally forced loose by freedom of information act suits. The eyewitness
reports of explosion after explosion had no effect.
-
- Larry Silverstein, who received billions of dollars in
insurance payments for the destroyed buildings, talked. He said on public
television that the order was given "to pull" building 7. His
stunning admission had no effect.
-
- The Bush administration is preparing us for more terrorist
attacks. The latest intelligence report says that Al Qaeda has regrouped,
rebuilt, and has the ability to come after us again. "Al Qaeda will
intensify its efforts to put operatives here," says the report.
-
- Security operatives, such as Michael Chertoff, and various
instruments of administration propaganda have warned that we will be attacked
before next year's election. Chertoff is not a person who wants to be
known as Chicken Little for telling us that the sky is falling.
-
- Bush has the Republican Party in such a mess that it
cannot survive without another 9/11. Whether authentic or orchestrated,
an attack will activate Bush's new executive orders, which create a dictatorial
police state in event of "national emergency."
-
- See
- http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArti
- cle&code=CHO20070624&articleId=6134
-
-
- The UK government is hand-in-glove with the Bush administration
and will provide cover or verification for whatever claim the Bush administration
advances. So will the right-wing governments in Canada and Australia.
That takes care of the English-speaking world from which contrary explanations
might reach the American people.
-
- It is possible that Bush is now too weak, that suspicion
is too great, and that there is too much internal resistance in the federal
bureaucracy and military for any such scenario. If so, then my prediction
prior to the invasion that the US invasion of Iraq will destroy Bush, the
Republican Party, and the conservative movement will be proven true. The
Democrats' strategy of doing nothing except making sure Bush gets his way
will produce the landslide that they expect.
-
- However, this assumes that Cheney, Rove, and their neoconservative
allies have lost their cunning and their manipulative skills. It is difficult
to imagine a more dangerous assumption for Democrats and the American people
to make.
-
- Once the US experiences new attacks, Bush will be vindicated.
His voice will be confident as he speaks to the nation: "My administration
knew that there would be more attacks from these terrorists who hate us
and our way of life and are determined to destroy every one of us. If
only more of you had believed me and supported my war on terror these new
attacks would not have happened. Our security efforts were impaired by
the Democrats' determined attempts to surrender to the terrorists by forcing
our withdrawal from Iraq and by civil libertarian assaults on our necessary
security measures. If only more Americans had trusted their government,
this would not have happened." And so on. Anyone should be able to
write the script.
-
- Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street
Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is
coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com
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