Remembering 9/11

20 years ago tomorrow, a terrorist attack in the United States country was the worst single crime against humanity of the new century.

Up until that point.

For a brief moment, Americans were one people, in shock, in grief, but together. The cruel attacks united us in a way that hasn't been seen since.

This hasn't been seen since because of what happened next.

The unity was cynically exploited by politicians and their sponsors to engage in an avalanche of inhumanity.

Two destructive wars that cost billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives, both American and foreign. 

State-sponsored kidnapping. 

State-sponsored torture. 

Inciting bigotry against honest, hard-working Americans. 

So much pain inflicted.

In our name.

And worse still, encouraging "allies" to join in.

We are not safer because of this avalanche of inhumanity. 

And we are certainly not more united because of this avalanche of inhumanity.

The internal unraveling of America succeeded more spectacularly than the 9/11 terrorists could possibly have imagined. The mass murder was done by foreigners but the subsequent disintegration was entirely self-inflicted.

Bigotry always does as much damage those holding such views as it does to the objects of the hatred. This is true of individuals. And as the last two decades have shown, it is also true of societies.

Fires are only extinguished when they are deprived of the oxygen they need to survive. The fire of  division is nourished by the oxygen of bigotry. It's long past time to starve that fire.

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

-From South Pacific, Rodgers & Hammerstein

The non-unique threat posed by militant Islam

The Huffington Post had an article about recent revelations on the depth of National Security Agency spying on Americans.

Key passages: It's as if the United States has two governments, one open and one very much not... Obama's 2009 marching orders for classifying documents closely resembled those of his predecessors at least back to Ronald Reagan... ‘Secrecy has become an obstacle in many areas of public policy. And we still are living with a classification system that is a legacy of the Cold War era.’

This belies the propaganda that militant Islam represents a unique threat, unprecedented in American history, requiring brand new measures that disregard the Constitution in order to combat.

In reality, it’s the same threat we've faced in the past with different demons. That’s why use the same rhetoric and tactics, only with different names.

Obama is a terrorist president? Liberals don't care either way.

NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday ran an interview with Gregory Johnsen, author of a book about the US bombing campaign in Yemen and the way its massively undermined America's national security. The author points out that when the bombing campaign began, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula counted only 200 members; now it's many times higher. This is because all the 'collateral damage' caused by the bombings has created a massive amount of resentment and thus new recruits for the armed organization.

In Salon.com, Glenn Greenwald highlights a despicable practice of the Obama administration. It not only does 'regular' bombings of suspected terrorists but it also specifically targets funerals and those who've come to the aid of victims in earlier bombings. Greenwald points out that this is a signature tactic of Hamas and other groups designated 'terrorist' by the very same US government.

It really shows how tribal and devoid of principle American *voters* have become; we can't blame it all on politicians. If the Nobel Peace Prize winner had done this as a member of the conservative tribe, liberals (or what passes for them in this country) would have taken to the streets in indignant outrage demanding that this abominable president be impeached and tried for war crimes. And rightly so.

But because he did so as a member of their tribe, there is a deafening silence amongst so-called liberals while they entertain themselves mocking whichever irrelevant figure happens to be designated the right-wing buffoon of the week.

Muslim Americans twice as likely to oppose attacks on civilians than Catholics, Protestants

Poll cited by Yes! magazine:

% of Muslim Americans who say military attacks on civilians is never justified: 78

% of Catholic Americans who agree: 39

% of Protestant Americans who agree: 38

Reflections on 9/12

On this eve of the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, The New York Review of Books re-ran an excellent essay (from 2003) by Joan Didion. In it, she explores the ways in which Americans did far more damage to our own society in the post-9/11 period than al-Qaeda ever could.

'Violent counter-jihadism' and its threat to western democracies

Foreign Affairs has a good article on "counter-jihadism," a violent ideology in itself, as exemplified by the Christian terrorist who committed mass murder in Norway last week.

Christian Jihadists

So reading this piece on the terrorist attack in Norway committed by a white, blond-haired Norwegian, could someone please remind me why violent, conservative Muslim theocratic extremists are so much more dangerous to safety, democracy and civilized western values than violent conservative Christian theocratic extremists?

Factoid of the week

Extrapolating from average figures, since 2002: approximately 328,000 Americans have died in car accidents, 160,000 have died because of the regular flu, 120,000 have been murdered by other Americans (from our "Christian nation") and 0 have been killed on American soil by Islamist terrorists.

Justice for dummies

Germany recently arrested and charged an alleged former Nazi with running a death camp in the 1940s.

Cambodia is putting on trial senior Khmer Rouge members for torture committed in the 1970s.

A Peruvian court convicted and sentenced to a quarter century in jail its former president Alberto Fujimori for widespread human rights abuses in the 1990s.

The United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone is currently trying former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor for hideous war crimes and crimes against humanity also committed in the 1990s.

If these entities can hold to account former heads of state for human rights abuses committed decades ago, then why can't US officials prosecute those who authorized secret torture sites, torture more generally and any of the other violations of American and international law okayed only a few years ago by the US government during the so-called war on terror?

Sadly, some in power and their apologists are more concerned with 'not giving the Republicans any ammo' than re-establishing America's respect for civilized values and the rule of law.

Third world countries and the supposedly incompetent UN are mature and decent enough to apply justice and the rule of law. Certainly the self-described Greatest Nation on Earth and Leader of the Free World can hold itself to at least a high a standard.

That pro-Hezbollah tree near my house

If you support a progressive agenda, then support a progressive candidate.

The far right has completely lost its mind.

Not all conservatives, mind you. Some of them recognize the damage that their namesakes are doing to the country.

But the most extreme right wingers are so completely irrational and out of control that they must be exposed as such.

Some of you are surely saying, "Brian, it’s taken you this long to figure that out?"

Of course, I realized this years ago. But what I'm just coming to understand is exactly how quickly this problem is accelerating as they face the real risk of losing power to that greatest of their enemies: someone that may put an emphasis on (gasp) diplomacy. A rabid wolf backed into a corner is even more dangerous than an ordinary wolf.

The delusional far right imagines a terrorist threat under every strangely located rock. I think there's a pro-Hezbollah tree near my house because its leaves are yellow and green!

Take two recent incidents.

First was the Rachael Ray scarf flap. The ubiquitous Food Network star, who grew up locally, ran an ad for Dunkin Donuts. In it, Ray happened to be wearing a fashionable (?) scarf.

I saw the ad and thought nothing of it. I didn't even give the scarf a second look except to think it looked a little gaudy.

Michelle Malkin, arguably the most hallucinatory of the far right mad dogs, saw the ad and conjured up a scarf that symbolized Arab terrorism.

WTF?!

Of the course, the main difference between Malkin and responsible citizens is that we don't make a comfortable living whipping up xenophobia.

But this is only the second most serious national security problem we face.

If anyone says boo about Laura Bush, the extreme right goes apoplectic with rage. Spouses of candidates are untouchab... so long as the candidates have an (R) after their name. The right attacked nominee spouses Hillary Clinton in 1992 (and to some extent in 1996) and Teresa Heinz-Kerry in 2004. Now, they're aiming their smear guns and keyboards at Michelle Obama.

What is this malefactor's crime? How has she tarred humanity? How does she threaten America?

She and her husband… bumped fists at a campaign rally.

Yes, the fist bump has now replaced equal rights for gays and even Rachael Ray's scarf collection as the greatest threat to America.

Sane people viewed the fist bump and thought it was just a loving couple celebrating a political victory, in much the same way team sport athletes do after a win or a good run of play.

I often fist bump my soccer players when they come off the field. Send me to Gitmo right away!

The unhinged right viewed this benign act and saw "Hizbollah hand jabbing" (Human Events blog) and "terrorist fist jab" (Fox 'News' Channel).

And this was less than two months questions were raised about the crisis of Obama's refusal to use American flag-embossed salad forks.

Americans better hope that we never face a real terrorist threat. This 'boy who cried wolf' hysteria has so drained the far right’s credibility that even if there is a true terrorist threat at some point in the future, no one’s going to believe it.

Whatever world the far right occupies, I truly wish I were there. I wish I lived in a place where the Obamas' fist bump was one of the most pressing issues facing that world. It must be a nice tranquil place with few real problems.

But I live in a world called reality. I and most normal Americans live in a place where a weak economy, high gas prices and skyrocketing food prices make the 'scandal' of Rachael Ray’s fashion tastes absolutely trivial.

And since the far right obviously doesn't even live in our world, they can't possibly have any claim to rule our country.

Where are today’s war bonds?

If you support a progressive agenda, then support a progressive candidate.

When President Bush says something that’s merely galling, it no longer merits a story. No one takes him seriously any more so why not reserve outrage for actions instead of mere words? But sometimes, his words are so revealing that you have to comment.

Recently, The Decider compared the current US aggressions to World War II.

"After World War II we helped Germany and Japan build free societies and strong economies. These efforts took time and patience, and as a result Germany and Japan grew in freedom and prosperity and are now allies of the United States,” Bush puffed.

Now that the two countries are merely in a rebuilding phase, perhaps he can cease his heroic sacrifice of giving up golf!

The US has occupied Iraq for over five years.

Five years into US occupation, both Japan and the Federal Republic of Germany were more or less stable countries with stable governments.

The US occupied Japan for a total of seven years and West Germany for eight. Does anyone seriously think we’ll be even close to out of Iraq by 2010 or 2011?

A real comparison with World War II would reveal far more than Bush would like. It would show exactly how illegitimate and immoral the current wars* are.

(*-By 'current wars,' I'm referring to the wars against Iraq, Afghanistan and terror)

During World War II, the entire nation was mobilized. Every man, woman and child was asked to sacrifice. Families were expected to plant Victory Gardens. Everything was recycled to avoid waste. Women left the home (which was considered a sacrifice back then) to work in factories were re-tooled to become part of the war effort.

Perhaps most tellingly, people bought war bonds. In a time when few were affluent, they made a voluntary choice to spend their money for something that they believed very important. They did this because most Americans believed that success in World War II was essential to the nation’s freedom.

Where are today’s war bonds?

Aside from intoning politically correct catchphrases ‘Never forget’ and ‘Freedom isn’t free,’ Americans today are asked to do nothing more than slap a yellow ribbon bumper sticker on their SUV before they go to the Gap and send a message to the America-hating Evildoers with their credit card.

This sentiment was echoed by President Bush’s own former spokespuppet Scott McClellan, who said, "What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary” and that "One of the worst disasters in our nation's history became one of the biggest disasters in Bush's presidency.”

One can certainly question McClellan’s motives. One can assume that he’s merely trying to clear what’s left of his conscience regarding a once-popular war that’s now seen as a disaster; it’s funny how many sleazeballs suddenly gain a moral code once the poll numbers collapse. One can doubt his sincerity for not resigning rather than being complicit in what he himself calls a ‘Culture of Deception.’ But the comments are revealing nonetheless.

This casual attitude, the refusal to ask for sacrifice, the lust for force as a first option rather than a last, illustrates how the current wars have never had anything to do with our nation’s freedom.

And given the way both have been mismanaged, I think every American should all be grateful they have nothing to do with our freedom. Every American except for few hundred thousand who are risking their lives because of this ‘Culture of Deception’ and their families.

If it really mattered, we’d ALL be asked to make sacrifices. Not just the soldiers and their families.

If it really mattered, we’d all be asked to make real sacrifices. We’d be asked to make sacrifices more significant than a moment of silence here or an hour-long ceremony on Memorial Day there. We'd be asked to make sacrifices more significant than giving up golf.

If it really mattered, we’d be asked to take action, not merely engage in symbolism.

That we expect young kids to bear the entirety of the burden we know to be unnecessary and for the exclusive benefit of a small oligarchy of huge corporations, shows the hollowness not only of the current wars, not only of our nation’s so-called leaders, but of our whole society for meekly accepting this disgraceful state of affairs without questioning why.

Scumbag of the week

Given that this award is named after Dick Cheney, it's appropriate that this week's winner is our vice-president's ideological twin.

Benjamin Netanyahu, long one of the most despicable characters in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, made headlines recently. The former Israeli prime minister and current opposition leader talked about how fantastic the 9/11 terrorist attacks had been for his country.

"We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq," he said, noting that events had "swung American public opinion in our favor."

I'm really glad for the always opportunistic Netanyahu that not only has the mass murder of American civilians has given such a fantastic boost to his political career but that he's comfortable publically bragging about it.

Then again, this is a man who's made his career by exploiting for his own political benefit the murder of Israeli civilians, so I suppose this isn't such a great leap.

Bush adminstration claims right to kidnap British bankers

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -Theodore Roosevelt

From denying the most basic freedom of western civilization to denying other fundamental tenets of justice to supporting torture (and repeatedly so) to the maintenance of a kidnapee camp in violation of all norms of decency, the Bush administration has repeatedly shown beyond any shadow that it is pathologically unable or unwilling to follow the law, either American or international.

Some people will be upset at my reference to Guantanamo Bay as a kidnapee camp, even though it clearly fits the commonly accepted definition of the word. (Though I'd accept 'abduct' as a suitable alternative)

Despite all evidence to the contrary, some may indignantly deny that the US government kidnaps people but the Bush administration is quite open about this reality. Its war against civilization is quite overt. Recently, Bush administration lawyers told a Court of Appeal in London that it has the right to kidnap British citizens if they are wanted for crimes in the US.

This is despite the fact that the UK is allegedly Bush's strongest ally in the so-called war on terror, despite the fact that there is already an extradition treaty between the two countries and despite the fact that the men sought by Washington are not evil Muslim terrorists but bankers.

Bankers: a true national security threat! I know communists might argue this but I know expected this of neo-con corporatists.

Bush apologists claim that the fate of the free world depends on his and his administration's good judgement. If the future of freedom depends on a government who claims the inalienable right to abduct bankers off the streets of countries with whom it has good relations and an extradition treaty, then we really are screwed.

Bush and Cheney should not be impeached for his war against Iraq. A simple war crimes trial will do. What they should be impeached for is their almost non-stop assault on the rule of law and the most basic tenets of American values. Although you may have forgotten, they did twice put their hand on the Christian Bible and swear an oath of office. And although you may not have forgotten this, they clearly have.

Update: Now the head of the most secretive US administration in history is deamdning transparency of the Iranian regime. Mind-blowing hypocrisy is nothing new with these folks. The amusing/terrifying part is that they still seem to be under the delusion that they have any credibility left.

Terrorists convinced without suspending the rule of law

The trial of the Madrid train bombers concluded today, with 21 of the 28 accused were convicted today and most sentenced to long jail terms.

What interested me is how the trial was conducted in a regular court before a regular judge. Some Americans believe that our country is so weak and fragile that terrorism suspects can't be tried in a regular courts. Some Americans believe that the republic will collapse if the rule of law is applied.

They argue that suspects must never be charged with an actual crime. They argue that suspects must be kidnaped and shipped to black holes like Guantanamo Bay or to countries like Syria that our own government claims supports terrorism.

The Madrid trial (to say nothing of the Zaccarias Moussaoui, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and Timothy McVeigh trials) demonstrate what garbage this is.

If a country like Spain that was a fascist dictatorship only a generation and a half ago can hold such a politically charged trial in open court without suspending the rule of law and without the state disintegrating, then surely one of the world's oldest democracies like ours can figure out a way to do the same.

Or perhaps what supporters of the war against civil liberties are really arguing is that Spain is a more mature country than the United States.

The administration's criminal war against American values (pt. 1224)

I was pleased to read that Congress has apologized to a Canadian citizen who was kidnaped by US officials and shipped off to Syria where he was tortured.

The process is known as extraordinary rendition, which is a euphemism for simple kidnaping. Yes, kidnaping, the same tactic employed by terrorists themselves. For US officials themselves to use this is nothing less than a disgrace.

That American officials would ship their alleged terrorist suspect off to a country that the US government itself calls a state sponsor of terror is mind boggling, even by the Bush administration's incoherent standards of rational reasoning.

Maher Arar was released from the Syrian prison without charge. A Canadian government inquiry also cleared him of any involvement in terorrism.

But not after he spent 10 months in a Syrian jail where he says he was "beaten with an electrical cable and threatened with a metal chair, the tyre and electric shocks," which is no surprise since the US government itself says that Syria tortures and even kills its prisoners.

He inexplicably remains on the US government's watchlist... even after being cleared of wrongdoing by his torturers!

Just click your heels and say "they hate us because we're free."

It's yet another example of how the Bush administration repeated and criminal betrayal of American values undermines its very claims of being on the side of freedom.

But at least Congress had the basic decency to apologize for the administration's affront to liberty and humanity. Or at least this particular one.


Update: This editorial in The Washington Post reminds readers how the president's belief in freedom is a bit more waffling than his apologists would have you believe.

Name the leftist

The far right would have you believe that if only traitorous liberals and progressives would stop rooting for us the enemy in Iraq, then everything in Mesopotamia would be hunky dory! They are so concerned about peddling their anti-Bush agenda that they can't see how much progress is being made in the place.

So which pro-treason, anti-GOP, Bush-hating hippie said the following:

-The war on terror is "phony war"

-"None of you should believe we are winning this war. There is no evidence that we are winning this war."

-"If you can't look failure in the face, how do you improve it?"

This was said by the noted radical leftist Newt Gingrich.