9/11. The number still rings in the mind as if chosen to act as a Pavlovian trigger: Outrage, anger, paranoia, retribution. A shadowy band of religious zealots fly not one, but two commercial airliners into the heart of America’s financial community while others deal a deadly blow to the Pentagon. It was a Hollywood movie, an act of war rivaling Pearl Harbor. Why did it happen? Who would do this to Americans, to America? How could a band of ragged terrorists plotting from a cave in faraway Afghanistan have accomplished such a complex task given the size and pervasiveness of the largest and most expensive military/intelligence apparatus in the history of the world? And even more curiously, why would Islamic radicals give the ideology-driven neoconservative administration of George W. Bush exactly the pretext they needed to launch a bloody invasion and further occupation of the Middle East?
According to the official narrative, 9/11 was an attack on everything American and in so doing changed everything about America. Like Kafkaesque characters who’d suddenly found themselves on the other side of a Cold War “Iron Curtain” mirror, Americans would now have to “watch what they say and watch what they do,” open up to questioning or face jail when prodded by squinty-eyed border guards and forsake any hope of privacy or dignity in a new world of electronic spies and full body scans. Former National Security Advisor, Admiral John Poindexter’s Total Information Awareness program would be enacted and a preexisting “Patriot Act” would be signed into law to clamp down on dissent and real or imagined domestic terrorism.
Some careful observers like Anthony Lewis of the New York Times had already noticed the bizarre coup-like changes coming over Washington in the months leading up to the attack as the George W. Bush administration inaugurated radical shifts in domestic and foreign policy that seemed un-American and alien to anything that had gone before. But those concerns would soon be forgotten in the race for revenge.
9/11 would ultimately give President George W. Bush and his neoconservative advisors all the public approval they needed to transform America and invade Afghanistan and Iraq to cleanse the world of evil in an endless “war on terror.” In the end it would turn America’s reputation for racial and religious tolerance, military invincibility and economic dominance on its head.
Looking back on the carnage of the last ten years it’s easy to see how the psychology of 9/11 changed America. What’s not easy to see is how a long standing campaign of covert psychological warfare built up since the early days of World War II had made the slow destruction of American democracy and the ascension of rule by secrecy inevitable, long before the planes ever left the runway on 9/11:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” -Dr. Joseph Goebbels (more...)
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What the world looks like, through American spectacles:
I disagree with some of your thoughts here. I'm an American, I don't know if you happen to be. I agree with you that 9/11 is a psychological trigger. I can't imagine the place where 9/11 could happen and this wouldn't be the case, but it was not revenge that formed the whole of the generally desired response, although it was (and is) part of it. Americans are certainly not accustomed to barbarians attacking us on our soil, nor should we be, nor should anybody be. The American response historically has been to bring that fight back to wherever it came from, and send a message so strong the originator will not likely try it again or, eliminate the threat. I am a middle aged woman. I agree with both of these tactics. Unfortunately in the world, weakness soon brings attacks, simple understanding of history and human nature. This will never change. We don't study, teach, or know the history of Islam and the West, so why this is all occurring is a mystery to most Americans, although not as much now.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Bush did not do the best thing, but he did something, and something is yes, better than nothing. There was no neat fix that was going to sew this up, and the "war on terror" has still not been properly named. It is an Islamic Jihad against the West, but who calls it that. As long as we in the West treat political correctness as if it is our religion and refuse to deny it, this will continue. We will be attacked again and again, in ways both large and small, if one Christian being slaughtered by a Muslim can be called "small".
But with Donald Trump going into office, it is a brand new day here. Here is somebody completely different, who seems to see political correctness is a problem and was the only one willing to name it, and lo, a complete political newbie and outsider wins the office of the president of the United States. The American people get it, even if the elites do not, we are in a war for our culture, lives, and land. The America of 1940 or 1950 would quickly respond properly to the threat from Muslims and Islam with no qualms and with great unity. We are not that nation, but neither are we willing to sacrifice our land, culture, and children as Europe seems quite willing to do.
Kathleen, thank your for your excellent recapitulation of the American Creed. I've always been amazed at how many Americans can recite their foundation documents and other patriotic texts. Canadians generally can't. But then, much of our media and education isn't Canadian.
DeleteHowever, we do get a lot of the propaganda spilling over our long border and many, as I do, have relatives in your country. Read a bit further into the articles. You will learn about a very powerful and weaponized propaganda machine that most Americans are not aware of. My first contact with the "wizard behind the curtain" was at my college, which was staffed by several elite American academics trained at Columbia and Berkely in Frankfurt School ideology. The engine of social engineering in your country is extremely powerful -- you are NOT a free and informed people to whom your government is answerable. Read the linked articles and learn what the "social sciences" are really doing. Also, search on "Trump" in this blog. You'll discover some things about who he really is.