by Diane V. McLoughlin, May 22, 2011
main website -
mcloughlinpost.com
If we were gods, you and I, peering with omnipotent clarity at this precarious, nuclear-armed moment
in human history, I don't think we would see al Quaeda or Osama bin Laden as the principles in this
chromatic red canvass of blood, twisted sky-scraping steel, crumpled minarets, oil-soaked sand and
depleted uranium poisonous dust [1].
Although the picture is forever to remain less clear now that bin Laden has been killed during a U.S.
military raid in Pakistan, I am of the view that 9/11 was retaliation for American conquests conducted
in the Middle East; conquests orchestrated by insiders at the tippy-top with little-helper countries, for
whatever reason, joining in. Great Britain is all-in on this 'war on terror' for lucrative scraps, where
once she sat at the head of empire's bloated table.
These two forces, the U.S. under President Clinton, and the U.K., held Iraq under military siege,
deliberately bombing out that country's electrical and water treatment plants which caused the deaths of
hundreds of thousands of Iraqi babies and children due to water-borne disease. This campaign of
terror against Iraq was conducted over the course of ten long, merciless years prior to 9/11 (1993 - 2003.)
That Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and subsequently was accused of harboring weapons of mass
destruction were the reasons given for the siege. Iraq maintained that Kuwait had always been a part of
Iraqi territory. It was Great Britain that redrew the regions' territorial boundaries early in the Twentieth
Century. Kuwait is suspiciously an independent speck on the giant bottom of Iraq. As far as WMD are
concerned, if Saddam had them he got them from the West which sided with Iraq during the disastrous
nine-year Iran-Iraq war (1980 - 1988). [1a] A million or more people perished in that conflict.
It is high time that our understanding of 'foreign intervention' matures past notions of national pride, in
order to weigh its actual justification.
Greed, arrogance, fear of blow-back, each thrusts tentacled arms of empire ever outward while
ordinary people on both sides are the only ones who pay the ultimate price, in blood (casualties) and
treasure (loot or tax.)
Even this is not an entirely fair or accurate criticism when it comes to Iraq. Because the fact of the
matter is that hundreds of thousands of people marched in the streets around the world to demand that
their respective governments not participate in the war against Iraq in 2003. It was a very strange thing
to witness war commenced that was so obviously opposed by so many people everywhere.
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Mussolini coined the term corporatism to describe the
melding of state, military and corporate power. That term
works in describing America, but the term fascism is better
understood by most.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower in an extraordinary
moment of stunning candor warned Americans to
guard against a growing military-industrial complex
becoming so powerful it could overtake America's
democracy, destroying it.
Corporatism, fascism, or military-industrial complex,
the effects hold a lot (most? all?) of the same risks in
common.
Progressives might be tempted to say it was the
neo-conservatives (neo-cons for short) who should
be blamed for the aggressive trajectory of American
foreign policy. But the fact is that America amassed
a thousand military installations around the world
in 186 countries regardless of who was in power;
that this provides plenty of scope for making enemies
is a mewling understatement. [1b]
It is peculiar that, while the empire spread throughout the Twentieth Century, the Democrats managed
to pull off the appearance of just having weakly gone along.
Current President Barack Obama inherited an empire-sized mess; true. But Democrats forget that
democratic President Bill Clinton helped get us there. Once so hopeful, the continuing blind defenders
of the current President, widely referred to as the Obamabots, cannot get around the fact that Obama
has picked up the ball and run with it instead of calling for a war and Constitution-shredding time-out.
The Obama Administration claims the right to put out hits on American citizens. [2] Bombs Libya
without Congressional approval in what appears to be a race against China over control of Africa's
resources rather than anything to do with humanitarianism. [3] Obama doesn't close Guantanamo
prison, a Bush Administration experiment with shades of lawlessness (torture; indefinite detention
without charge or trial against randomly rounded-up foreigners, handed over for cash rewards by dirt
poor foreign headhunters) even though Obama had vowed that he would. [4] [5] President Obama
apparently believes in preventive detention. [6] He continues the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the latter
now the longest war in the entire history of America, as of June, 2010. The President is now overseeing
the dropping of bombs via remote-controlled drones in Pakistan, a notoriously inaccurate means of
targeting individuals, with a terrible cost being paid in human life, not to mention diplomatic capital.
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I don't know if bin Laden was involved with the events of 9/11 or not. Sometimes he said he
wasn't. [7] Sometimes he said he was. [8] I haven't got the slightest idea why his message wasn't
consistent. Definitely, he was a severe critic of American foreign policy. [9]
We do know that Osama bin Laden's guilt or innocence wouldn't have been the only thing judged in
court if he was arrested and charged, as is the usual case with criminal suspects. That Osama bin Laden
ended up dead instead of in custody leaves a cloud of suspicion over America's (and indeed the West's)
reputation.
What we are witnessing in our time is an unprecedented wearing away of the rule of law. The rule of
law protects all of us from abuse of authority [10]; from corruption; tyranny and oppression. The
continuous undermining of the law corrodes the dream of democracy. The broken scales of justice
herald the retreat of civilized progress into an uncharted Dark Age in human history.
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Notes
[1] Website - 'International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons: The Problem - Overview: 'A concise
guide to uranium weapons, the science behind them and their threat to human health and the
environment';
http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/en/i/77.html ;
[1a] Wikipedia: 'United States support for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war'; subsection, 'Chemical and
biological exports' - 'On May 25, 1994, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee released a report in which
it was stated that "pathogenic (meaning 'disease producing'), toxigenic (meaning 'poisonous'), and other
biological research materials were exported to Iraq pursuant to application and licensing by the U.S.
Department of Commerce."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_support_for_Iraq_during_the_Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_war ;
[1b] 'Full-Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order - Part I in a review
of F. William Engdahl's book'; by Stephen Lendman; June 22, 2009; Global Research.ca;
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14046 ;
[2] Article: 'Confirmed: Obama authorizes assassination of U.S. citizen'; Glenn Greenwald; Apr. 7,
2010; Salon.com;
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/07/assassinations ;
[3] Video (7 mins): 'U.S. - China oil conflict behind Libya war'; (taken from approximately one minute
in) Press TV interviews former U.S. Treasury official Paul Craig Roberts, May 10, 2011 - “What has
happened is while Washington was caught off guard by the Arab protests in Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain
they quickly learned that they could use Arab protests as a cloak behind which to hide while China and
Russia are evicted from the Mediterranean”;
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/179142.html ;
[4] Article, 'Guantanamo still open as 9th anniversary looms'; Agence France Presse as republished in
Common Dreams.org; Jan. 10, 2011;
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/01/10 ;
[5] Article, 'Guantanamo's lost souls'; The Guardian; Brent Mickum; Jan. 8, 2007:
'...approximately 99% of the prisoners have never been charged with any transgression, much less a
crime. Approximately 400 of these prisoners, characterised by the Bush administration as "the worst of
the worst", have been released without charge, many directly back to their families. That any prisoners
have been released is due almost entirely to the outrage of the civilised world. What most of the world
does not yet realise is the extent of the misinformation disseminated by the Bush Administration and the
US military: for example, American forces captured only 5% of all the prisoners at Guantánamo; 55%
of the prisoners were found by the military never to have committed a hostile act against the United
States or its coalition allies; the vast majority of the prisoners at Guantánamo were turned over to the
Americans in exchange for large bounties paid for by the United States.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/jan/08/post885?INTCMP=SRCH ;
[6] Article, 'Obama is said to consider preventive detention plan'; Sheryl Gay Stolberg; May 20, 2009;
New York Times;
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/us/politics/21obama.html?hp ;
[7] 'Interview with Osama bin Laden, denies involvement in 9/11'; Pakistani newspaper the Daily
Ummat in Urdu, as translated into English by the BBC Worldwide Monitoring Service, Sept. 29, 2001,
as republished on Global Research.ca: "I have already said that I am not involved in the 11 September
attacks in the United States. As a Muslim, I try my best to avoid telling a lie. I had no knowledge of
these attacks, nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children, and other humans as an
appreciable act. Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children, and other people."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24697 ;
[8] 'Bin Laden admits 9/11 responsibility, warns of more attacks'; PBS NewsHour; Oct. 29, 2004;
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/binladen_10-29-04.html ;
[9] Full text of Osama bin Laden's, 'Letter to the American People'; translated into English and
published Nov. 24, 2002; the Guardian.uk Observer Worldview Extra.
Bin Laden, "Why are we fighting and opposing you? The answer is very simple...Because you attacked
us and continue to attack us...";
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver ;
[10] Article, 'Republicans in Congress to Crown Obama King'; David Swanson; May 19, 2011; War Is
a Crime.org; discusses H.R.1540, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, and in
particular Section 1034;
http://warisacrime.org/content/republicans-congress-crown-obama-king ;
Discussing whether or not targeted assassinations are good policy vis a vis bin Laden - 'The Osama bin
Laden Exception'; Glenn Greenwald; May 6, 2011, Salon.com;
For further reading on American foreign policy: 'Enforcing American Hegemony - A Timeline'; Josh
