The fact that we are living in a "post 9/11 world" has been utilized (most irritatingly by our goofy, mendacious Secretary of State, Dr. Condoleezza Rice) to justify just about anything related to war, torture and foreign policy. For the Dick Cheney Regency--now in its last days, with the Regent out of sight and under cover--the "post 9/11 world" throw-away line has been an all-purpose, bullet-proof vest. 

Cheney and his junior sidekick, G.W. Bush, aka the Dauphin, are going to waltz out of town, unindicted and unimpeached, in January 2009 despite all their numberless lies, transgressions, acts of malfeasance and probable war crimes during the past eight, inglorious years. Ditto for Don “I don’t do quagmires” Rumsfeld and the notorious “neocon cabal” whom Cheney, in his capacity as useful idiot #1, put in charge of the asylum. So be it. How disgraceful this all is.

Yes, I realize that we are not living in a perfect world. Keep repeating "We are not..." to yourself, and see what good it does. The upcoming occupant of the Oval Office is further proof, if any were needed, of that imperfect-world scenario. Thanks to B. “Slippery” Obama, the Clintons are back in the saddle, along with the dreary establishment Democrats, complete with baggage, payoffs and uninterrupted subservience to Israel’s divide-and-rule strategy and the resultant, self-fulfilling “clash of civilizations” throughout the greater Middle East. This spells trouble. And more of the same.

*

A fortnight ago, I was in a discussion with two intelligent American citizens about the train wreck in which we find ourselves, and I asked them, "Why do you think we got hit on 9/11?" As is the norm whenever I pose that simple question, I was greeted with a pause and a puzzled stare, as if the thought had never occurred to them or else they had misunderstood what I said. 

The strange fact is (a) not only do most Americans still not comprehend why New York and Washington were attacked on 9/11, but they have given it only a passing thought, if at all. In addition (b) Americans are not especially curious why the Cheney Regency--enabled by the spineless, suborned “me-too” Democrats in Congress--invaded Iraq in the first place and then hunkered down for a long-term occupation of that god-forsaken country, even though Saddam Hussein had no WMD in 2002/2003 and posed no threat to the United States. Generally, the Iraq fiasco is being written off as bad judgment or some kind of honest mistake.

Remember, the White House justified (b) the move into Iraq and the "Global War on Terror" by (a) the terrorist atrocities unleashed in New York and Washington on September 11th, 2001. What does this indicate? It indicates that "Operation Iraqi Freedom" and GWOT were conceivable only because we are living in the aforementioned "post 9/11 world", which fact purports to justify everything for the leadership in charge of the “lone surviving Superpower”.

Yet even though 9/11 is the lynchpin, the centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy going forward, still Americans remain clueless about what happened on 9/11. They remain in the dark as to why America was attacked by Arab terrorists who hijacked jet airliners flying over the eastern seaboard of the United States about a year after the blowup of the Camp David Middle East “peace process” orchestrated by Bill Clinton and Dennis Ross. There is a disconnect between cause and effect. For the average American, the 9/11 attacks came from out of the blue.

In this regard, I recently came across one of my old memoranda from December 2004 entitled "Open Your Eyes". It was written almost four years ago to the day. I was surprised to see how little the United States had advanced since then in terms of coming to grips with reality. The memo struck me as more relevant than ever. At the moment, we are in the last days of 2008. We are in the process of "moving on"--with a new U.S. President of an exotic and dubious background, yet withal an inside Washington politician--and still we possess only the vaguest notion what transpired inside the Clinton and Bush Jr. Presidencies vis-à-vis the Middle East, and almost no comprehension how all of it has so negatively impacted Uncle Sam and the world at large. 

The national finances and economy of the United States are now imploding. Yet, we do not know why we are where we are. Again, the sole consolation could be the mantra, "We do not live in a perfect world". At this point, however, who is asking for perfection? How about a modicum of honesty, some self-respect and self-awareness? Not to mention intellectual curiosity.

Herewith, the 2004 memo, slightly edited, with links added...

December 13th, 2004 

Subject: "Open Your Eyes"

Friends,

Several days ago I quoted the thoughtful ex-CIA operative and Middle East expert Robert Baer, saying in March, 2002: "People will not address the question of Palestine in the context of the World Trade Centre attacks. It's not in the terms of the discussion."  Baer made that remark to the London Sunday Observer during an interview about the  invasion of Iraq. Please read "Bombing Saddam is ignorance".

On a related mass denial issue, please take note of an editorial (“Afraid to look in the moral abyss”) by James Carroll of The Boston Globe of a few days ago, December 7th, 2004.  The subject matter is Iraq. The question of Palestine is not just related to 9/11, as Robert Baer suggests. Palestine is also directly linked to Iraq. We are talking about multiple layers of denial. There are indelible dots connecting Palestine as the prime motive for 9/11, and connecting the war over Palestine to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. 

In fact, the American invasion of Iraq and the Zionist subjugation of Palestine are one in the same conflict. Iraq is the second front of the war in Palestine, an extension of it, which conflict was launched in earnest at the Cairo conference of 1921, presided over by British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill. He, Lloyd George and Arthur Balfour decided to keep their part of the bargain by paying off the Zionists for finally facilitating President Wilson’s entry into the Great War in 1917. That is what the Balfour Declaration of 1917 was all about. 

The present, ongoing bloodbaths (in Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, et al.) are the result of dishonest decisions made long ago in the  immediate aftermaths of World War I and World War II. These conflicts have been packaged/promoted today by Washington and Tel Aviv as part of the larger "war on terror". The packaging is false. The Bush/Cheney "war on terror" is creating and spreading terrorism. It is not eliminating terror. It serves primarily as a cover story to divert attention away from Palestine and Zionism.

American troops in Iraq, at the direction of the “neocons” in Washington,  have followed the sterling example set by the IDF (Israel Defense Force) in the occupation of Palestine. Jenin and Gaza were the prototypes for Fallujah. As with Sharon's gangsterism in Palestine, American policies in Iraq are manufacturing terrorists and perpetuating terrorism. The catastrophe in both countries is a continuum. The politicians in Washington are ultimately to blame.

This scenario was not, of course, an idea dreamed up by G.W. Bush. The man had help--and not just from Ariel Sharon, who is the prime architect of the wars in Palestine and in Iraq, starting in 2001, when he came to power within weeks of Bush and Cheney. By and through his surrogates in Washington--most obviously the “neocons”--Sharon has been in real-time control of U.S. foreign policy in the Arab and Muslim world ever since.

This sad circumstance of the tail wagging the dog is nothing new; it was already well established. It had been a joint Democratic-Republican project for years going back to the days of LBJ. Thanks to the American Israeli Lobby, Tel Aviv had been set free to run amuck. In response, Arab terrorists have retaliated upon America. So here we are.

As James Carroll elaborates in his Boston Globe article, the establishment Democrats joined forces with the establishment Republicans during the 2004 U.S. Presidential election campaign to insure that larger, important issues surrounding Washington's invasion of Iraq were never addressed. Isn't that curious? The essential, all-important questions of "Why?" and "What the hell for?" and ultimately "cui bono?" were taken off the table.

It was no doubt recognized by the insiders that once you start asking questions, the clear link between the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Tel Aviv’s guiding hand in Washington behind the scenes to promote that invasion would become obvious, even to the benighted. Such a development had to be avoided at all cost.

The situation has everything to do with power and control, and with the hidden, private agenda undertaken by those exercising power and control. Perhaps someday, like in the bitter aftermath of World War I, America will address the issue of how it got conned into a protracted, ruinous and expensive war, and find out the truth, and be revolted by it. But not now. Actually, if you want it straight, not ever. 

Senatorial investigations similar to those of the early 1930's into Wilson's War would be impossible to undertake today with respect to Wolfowitz's War, because in our time both the White House and Capitol Hill have been suborned by special interests, lobbies and campaign contributions. None dare call it treason. In any event, whether treason or corruption, the Imperial Presidency relegated the U.S. Senate and Congress to nullities long before Cheney and Bush entered the White House. Welcome to Ex-America.

--end--

Copyright 2008 Patrick Foy