20 Things We've Learned
Nearly a Year After 9/11
by Bernard Weiner.
As we approach the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it might
be useful to see how far an ordinary citizen's knowledge has progressed one
year on. So here, in the way of a summing-up, based on journalistic
documentation, is a list of things we Americans have learned since last
September -- some of which might prove useful in the run-up to the November
elections.
1. We've learned that Bush&Co.'s "war on terrorism" has morphed from finding
and destroying those responsible for the 9/11 mass-murders to a worldwide
campaign to install a Pax Americana, by force if necessary. In other words,
neo-imperialism, reminiscent in many ways of the old Roman Empire or, closer
to our own time, the British Empire.
2. We've learned that Bush&Co. has no desire to rethink any of its policies
abroad, the same policies that isolate it and that generate hatred, suspicion
and terrorism in so many regions of the globe. Rather than reconsider its pol
icies, or try to accomplish its ends through diplomacy and alliances and
cultural/economic initiatives, in its arrogance it continues to bully and
threaten others, insult its European and other allies, disregard
international treaties and courts, engage in unilateral actions without
regard to the national interests of others, and, in general, simply throw its
massive weight around. The prevailing attitude seems to be: We are the one
Superpower, get used to bending to our will.
3. We've learned that Bush's national-security leadership was alerted months
ahead of 9/11 (and, it has admitted, no later than August 6) that a major air
attack from al-Qaida was in the works, along with the likely targets, but did
nothing to try to prevent those attacks or warn anyone about them. Caught in
their own lies, they blame "the system," especially elements in the FBI, for
"not connecting the dots." More than 3000 Americans died as a result of this
malfeasance.
4. We've learned that plans already were in the works prior to 9/11 for the
evisceration of Constitutional guarantees of due process of law. The White
House hustled the so-called USA PATRIOT Act through a frightened Congress in
a patriotic blur, just a few days after the attacks, with few, if any, of the
legislators having had time to read the final version.
5. We've learned that prior to September 11, the Bush Administration was
negotiating with the Taliban about a pipeline desired by a energy
consortium that would cross through Afghanistan. When the Taliban balked, the
U.S. negotiators told them they either could accept a "carpet of gold" or
face a "carpet of bombs." The Taliban backed away from the deal and refused
to hand over Osama bin Laden; shortly after the terror attacks of 9/11, the
U.S. began bombing in Afghanistan.
6. We've learned that now with the Taliban having been overthrown, and a
regime installed in Kabul, the pipeline project is back on
track, designed to carry energy supplies across Afghanistan from the Caspian
Sea area to near India. Hamid Karzai, the new leader of Afghanistan, formerly
was a consultant on the payroll of the pipeline folks; likewise, the new U.S.
special envoy to Afghanistan.
7. We've learned that Bush&Co.'s Homeland Security Act includes programs that
bear an amazing resemblance to totalitarian programs from the
fascis/communist end of the spectrum: getting the military (restricted
heretofore to activity outside the U.S.) involved in domestic policing,
signing up neighborhood and block snoops to work for the central government,
investigating what books citizens are checking out and buying, denouncing
those deemed insufficiently patriotic or suspicious because of their views,
etc. Remind you of Stalin's Russia, Castro's Cuba, Hitler's Third Reich, the
Stasi of East Germany? (There also are prototypes of patriotic youth leagues
being tried out in cities, which could become a national program.) A kind of
martial-law coming to a neighborhood near you.
8. We've learned that Ashcroft/Bush are shredding Constitutional due-process
guarantees in their move toward total control: already they have compromised
attorney-client privilege, removed habeus corpus protections, locked up folks
with no charges, secreted citizens at military installations which puts them
out of reach of the judicial system, violated privacy in rifling through
personal telephone and email communications, etc. etc. When the
ambiguously-worded PATRIOT Act was first brought up, Ashcroft and Bush told
us not to worry, promising that these rules would affect only non-citizens.
Since that time, American citizens have been handled in similar fashion.
Coming to a neighborhood near you.
9. We've learned much about the dangers of religious fundamentalism in Islam,
but we've also learned about dangers posed by our own religious
fundamentalists -- eager for a Christian theocratic society, symbolized most
recently by a Secret Service agent scrawling on a Muslim suspect's
refrigerator "Islam Is Evil, Christ Is King" -- and the extraordinary power
they wield within the Bush Administration, represented most openly by John
Ashcroft, who in frame-of-mind resembles a Taliban mullah.
10. We've learned that the FBI, focusing now on foreign terrorists, doesn't
seem energized with the same zeal to catch domestic terrorists, such as
abortion-clinic arsonists -- and especially the anthrax-dispenser. Though the
FBI seems to know that the anthrax villain probably worked at a government
bio-lab, nobody has been arrested, or even targeted as a prime suspect. It
may not be likely, but the unsaid is finally being asked: Could this
dangerous terrorist actually be working for the government?
11. We've learned that the HardRight of the Republican Party has taken
control -- of the House leadership, of the Supreme Court, of the White House,
of much of the conglomerate-owned media -- and has demonstrated its
willingness to do nearly anything to maintain that power. (Only the
courageous defection of Sen. Jim Jeffords from GOP ranks is standing in the
way of HardRight total control of all three branches of government.) More and
more truly objectionable HardRight judges are being nominated by Bush in an e
ffort to stack the judiciary for decades to come. This by a man who lost the
election by more than half-a-million votes, coming into his White House
residency, with no popular mandate, only because his supporters on the
Supreme Court installed him there.
12. We've learned that to break the momentum of the HardRight, all energy for
the upcoming November elections (less than 90 days away, let us not forget)
must be expended in electing Democrat candidates and defeating Republican
ones. The objective conditions are just not ripe yet for anything more than
trying to move the country back toward the middle of the political spectrum.
We progressives more in tune with the Greens (Green candidates are being
supported secretly in many states by the Republicans, to try to defeat
Democrats) will have to wait. The difference between Democrats and
Republicans may seem small to Greens and others, but, as we've learned in a
painful way under Bush&Co., that difference is immense when it comes to
foreign and domestic policy and its actual effects on real people, here and
abroad.
13. We've learned that Cheney is up to his ears in Halliburton
irregularities, and may well be liable for indictment for participating in
financial fraud. In addition, we've learned that Cheney, who was the head of
the task force that came up with a corporate-friendly rather than a
consumer-friendly energy policy, has refused to turn over to Congress the
requested documents that will reveal how that policy was arrived at and which
industry leaders (other than Enron's Kenny Boy) helped shape it.
14. We've learned that Bush knew in advance, as a member of the Harken Audit
Committee, that Harken Oil was going to release negative financial news, and
sold his shares before that, reaping a fortune. He may be liable for
indictment for insider-trading and other Harken irregularities. (Even if Bush
and Cheney are not indicted, they are the last people on earth who should be
speaking about corruption in the corporate financial world, as these
hypocrites benefitted from that very corrupt system. As did most of Bush's
corporate-derived cabinet.)
15. We've learned that Bush&Co. were mightily opposed to any reform of
corporate financial reporting, but when more and more companies were caught
in such corrupt practices and the mood of the country shifted -- mainly
because so many folks, especially seniors, lost huge chunks of their pensions
and portfolio holdings when the Stock Market tanked as a result of investors'
losing confidence in the numbers provided by corporations -- they jumped on
the bandwagon and pretended they were reformers all along. In the background,
they are trying to help their corporate supporters water down, and otherwise
get around, the new rules. To that end, Bush&Co. have appointed Harvey Pitt
and Larry Thompson, two tainted corporate types, to head up the
"investigations" of corporate wrongdoing. Break out the whitewash.
16. We've learned that Bush&Co., having placed its chips on Ariel Sharon, c
ontinues to have no real desire for a just peace in the Middle East. All it
wants is for the area to be quiet and controlled (thus giving carte blanche
to the Israeli Army's police-state occupation and oppression), so that it can
continue its plans for overthrowing Saddam Hussein in Iraq. And, of course,
there has been no declaration of a State of War by the Congress, neither
against Afghanistan nor against Iraq, and no real debate about the wisdom of
a war against Saddam -- even when the top brass at the Pentagon and in Great
Britain have expressed their opposition to such military adventurism.
17. We've learned that there will be no peace now in the Middle East because
the U.S. is not fully engaged in the peace process, also because neither
extreme in the area wants peace: Sharon thrives on war and brutality, Hamas
needs Sharon's bloody policies to justify its campaign of terror. There are
signs that moderate Palestinians finally are starting to speak out in favor
of a peaceful solution, and there are plenty of land-for-peace Israelis
(supported by many liberal Jews in the U.S.), so the outlines of a peace are
out there. But until the U.S. and U.N. make the commitment to separate the
warring extremists and arrange an equitable treaty both Israel and the
Palestinians can live with -- secure borders for Israel (and an end to
suicide bombing), a viable state for the Palestinians, abandoning of the
settlements by Israel, reparations for Palestinians who lost their homes and
property -- there will be only more bloodshed. And more fertile ground for
new generations of terrorists, in the Middle East and elsewhere in the
Islamic world.
18. We've learned that Bush&Co. has been a total disaster for the
environment, in every way: from reneging on its campaign promise to cut
carbon-dioxide and other greenhouse emissions, to backing away from higher
fuel-efficiency in cars (we could cut our dependence on foreign oil 20% just
by increasing fuel efficiency by 5%), to giving breaks to corporate polluters
all across the country, to permitting increased arsenic levels in the water,
etc. etc.
19. We've learned that Secretary of State Colin Powell -- who sees the world
in something other than simplistic black-and-white, us-versus-them
dichotomies -- is a man imprisoned in the Bush Cabinet, forced to alter his
principled opinions in the service of Bush&Co.'s stupidly aggressive and
ultimately self-defeating foreign policies. Powell, a moderate conservative,
looks like a raving progressive when measured against his masters. He should
resign but probably won't.
20. We've learned that the tax-cuts provided to the most wealthy are not only
payoffs to the corporate sector that provides support for Bush&Co. By locking
in those tax cuts for ten years (and with humongous chunks of the budget
spent on the "war on terrorism"), Bush&Co. have ensured that innumerable
social programs that aid the less well-off will be cut or eliminated. In
short, a rollback of New Deal/Great Society programs, so hated by the
HardRight. (The HardRight movement to detach prescription drugs for seniors
fr om the Medicare program, and, especially, to privatize Social Security --
even in the face of recent stock-market disasters -- is part of this same
desire.)
Even after all the above shorthand summaries, no doubt I'm leaving out lots
of Bush&Co. dirt, but this list can provide a starting point, and a handy
compilation of enough low and high crimes and misdemeanors to warrant their
removal from power, either through the ballot box or by resignation or
impeachment.
Finally, as we enter August, we know that one of two things will happen in
the summer-doldrums, with the Congress on vacation: Either Bush&Co. will
start its Iraq war and carry out more under-the-radar attacks on important
American programs, or the media, bereft of their usual Beltway stories, will
use the down time to engage in hard-hitting investigative reporting that will
reveal in even more stark relief the machinations of Bush&Co. illegalities
and other scandalous behavior. But, given the corporate nature of our
corporate-owned media, don't count on it. Instead, we'll probably be flooded
with this summer's Condit-like sex scandal.
Bernard Weiner, Ph.D., has taught American politics and international
relations at Western Washington University and San Diego State University; he
was with the San Francisco Chronicle for nearly 20 years.
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