archived: 28 Mar - 3 Apr, 2004 Back Next
MICHAEL CARMICHAEL
(“What and When”)
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Before reading Carmichael’s cogent analysis, read this background piece from the Independent (England): “September 11 attacks: What did Bush know?”, By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
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The answers to the two questions in the headline above are coming
into a finer state of focus than ever before.
Pre-9-11, Bush knew that terrorists were lurking within the United
States. He knew that many top level US national security officials believed that
an attack was imminent. He knew that terrorists sought to hijack airplanes to
use them as guided missiles against major US buildings.
In early August, 2001, Bush knew all of the above. On a daily
basis from early on in his administration, Bush met every morning with CIA
Director, George Tenet, who told him and retold him every single, solitary day
that an attack from Al-Qaida was imminent. In the week prior to 9-11, Bush's
hand-picked National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, was in receipt of a
letter from the counter terrorism czar, Richard Clarke, notifying her that a
terrorist attack could cause the deaths of hundreds of innocent Americans.
Now it is possible to bring the mysterious reaction of the
president to Andrew Card on 9-11 into a clearer focus. Reading a story about a
goat to a classroom of elementary school children, Bush was dazed and confused
by the immensity of his culpability. Frozen into a psychological paralysis by
the enormity of his personal negligence, Bush continued reading to the young
children after Card had informed him that hijacked airliners had been used as
missiles that had struck the WTC.
Zombie-like and shocked at the hideous product of his own
incompetence, Bush was led through his paces as if he were under a deep hypnotic
state and being commanded by a powerful hypnotist.
But, the hypnotist was not really all that powerful. The person
who took command of the paralytic Bush was none other than Vice President Dick
Cheney, who had been preparing for all out war for years. Cheney knew exactly
where the plan for the event of all out nuclear war resided, and he put it into
effect. Bush was sent to a series of military bases then into the safety of a
deep underground security facility in the Rockies.
Hypnologic, paralytic, Zombified, Bush was pushed around the map
of America as if he were nothing more than a piece of chess being manipulated by
a rather crude and over aggressive player.
Bush was enduring the weight of blame, shame and self-pity that
would eventually lead him to the rationalization that 9-11 was not really his
fault. He was merely one cog in the chain-of-command-incompetents who all
malfunctioned simultaneously: Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith,
et alia.
In a state of utter confusion, Bush returned to the White House,
fearful for his own life as he constantly looked over his shoulders in a telling
series of furtive glances as he de-planed from Marine One on the South Lawn of
the White House. From that point, he went to work to cover up the truth lurking
beneath the greatest terrorist atrocity every committed on American soil.
His first meeting with his counter-terrorism czar produced his
dizzying demand that Clarke attempt to place the blame on Saddam Hussein of
Iraq, who had been disengaged from terrorism for years.
Bush was reeling in an orgy of incompetence. On his reel, he was
accompanied by Rice who had been reeling in her own dizzying pattern of
self-blame, self-pity and self-doubt. Both found comfort in the rationales of
the other. Both realized that their futures were bound tightly by the power of
the atrocity that had thrown them together at the center of the world's greatest
act of terrorist tragedy. Star-crossed and joined together in the tragic finale,
the two have been consoling and protecting each other since that portentous
date.
This tragedy is running out of time, for the people are beginning
to see that the stage is littered with set pieces; the actors are reading their
lines; the lighting shifts on cue to illuminate red herring after red herring,
and the emperor and the empress have no clothes to protect them from the stares
and disgust of the now truly bored audience.
The playwright, Clarke, has left the building to burn in a
Gotterdammerung of flames and confusion as the fat lady has begun to sing the
finale.
Let's bring the curtain down on this horrible opera.
MATTHEW SLOTKIN
(“Remember Shakespeare”)
Beware the leader who bangs
the drums of war
in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is
indeed a double-edged sword.
It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind....
And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with
hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights
of the citizenry.
Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded with patriotism, will offer
up all of their rights unto the leader, and gladly so. How do I know? For this
is what I have done.
And I am Caesar."
-- William Shakespeare
“If you oppose George Bush's policies, or if you're supported by anybody who opposes George Bush's policies, you're anti-American. . . . Last week, George W. Bush aired a TV ad in which the following charges appeared on the screen for nine seconds: "John Kerry's Plan: Weaken Fight Against Terrorists"; "John Kerry's Plan: Delay Defending America."
On Wednesday, Dick Cheney, who was defense secretary under George H.W. Bush and is now vice president under George W. Bush, denounced Kerry for saying at a March 8 fund-raiser, "I've met more leaders who can't go out and say it all publicly, but boy, they look at you and say, 'You've got to win this, you've got to beat this guy, we need a new policy,' things like that." Kerry's comment was stupid and off-message. Cheney's was not. In a scripted, 150-word rebuttal, Cheney used the phrase "foreigners" or "foreign leaders"—which he knew Kerry had never used—five times. Cheney mocked the "unnamed foreigners he's [Kerry] been spending time with" and demanded, "We have a right to know what he is saying to foreign leaders that makes them so supportive of his candidacy."
You get the message. Kerry's been spending time with the wrong sort of people. What's good for them must be bad for you. This is the message segregationists delivered to white voters 50 years ago about white politicians who met with blacks.” – Slate
Junkie: Slotkin’s historic reference is apt and the Slate article is a must read!
“STELLA”
(“Terrific Essays”)
In response to this Thursday TPJ Junkie Up(date) by Dr. Steven Jonas, “Stella” writes, “Terrific essays. I hope the Kerry campaign has a copy.” Junkie: Ditto!
HELEN CHURCH
(“Dr. Jonas Is Right”)
Dr. Jonas's comments about not discounting Nader’s contributions are admirable, and I agree with that. I also agree with the idea that 'just ignoring' him and focusing our energy on the folks most likely to vote for a change in policies is prudent. Yes, the Democratic Party has changed dramatically and I'm thinking that we will be appealing to those who were disappointed with the former candidates. They realize that there is so much more at stake in this election.
TAR HEEL TEACHER
(“An A+”)
Tar Heel teacher gives Junkie an A+ on all his work. He is always ahead of the main stream news. The graph on the federal deficit should be included in all Democratic candidates' adds. At the state level Tar Heel teacher would like to give Governor Easley an A for continuing to support education and other necessary state programs during difficult times. Because the governor has been responsible North Carolina is in better shape than many opponents of the governor would like to admit.
Junkie: Thanks Tar Heel Teacher. TPJ tries hard to keep Democrats informed. TPJ is a work in progress however. We will continue to improve as we grow.
Last Update: 03/23/2006