9/11 Retrospective, Part 4
[This is the fourth in a series of retrospective articles originally posted to my personal website on Lycos/Tripod in 2001, concerning my thoughts on the events of five years ago, as they unfolded at the time]
The Madness of King George
New York, March 21, 2002
Dr. Strangelove has taken over the Administration.
Our government's recent proclamation that it will now consider the nuclear option against states that do not possess weapons of mass destruction of any kind has got to send shivers of both fear and anger rippling throughout the entire world.
In our rabid, ill-thought-out "war on terror", it would seem that no action on our part is too egregious, morally bankrupt, or downright insane to be left off the table. The Doomsday Clock has returned - with a vengeance - just when we thought it was safe to live our lives again.
I can't help but remember that the US is the one sitting on 10,000 warheads, and has been the only nation to use nuclear weapons aggressively against a civilian population. There is a grave responsibility that comes with that, and we are now prepared to abrogate it, it seems, and plunge the world into another "defensive" arms race. So who's the "terrorist" here? It was one thing to use nukes as a deterrent, as a force of last resort during the Cold War, in the unlikely event of the USSR launching a massive pre-emptive strike against us. But now it would appear the Administration seeks merely to restore the illusion of invincibility we all had prior to 9/11.
We start with "strategic missile defense". Yes, we've had a couple of victories there. In four separate tests, the anti-missile hit the target. What happens when there are thousands of targets, and even more thousands of decoys? This may sound like some to be un-American on my part, but I hope the damn thing fails. How might this government behave if they thought no one could touch them? Imagine the US having all the big guns, with no one able to shoot back. Now imagine yourself living in China or Russia...or Canada, for that matter. How "safe" will an American truly feel, knowing that everyone hates them, even their "friends"?
At that point, we will have become the Evil Empire, and we all know from history what happens to empires - they collapse from the weight of their own hubris. Always. Every time. No exceptions. Egypt, Greece, Rome, Ottoman, British, Soviet. Find me one political and economic empire that withstood the test of time. Just one. There isn't one. If the entire world, simply from a sense of self-preservation, decides that 'enough is enough" and bands together against the US, all the posturing, technology, and nukes in our arsenal won't save us.
And do you think, even if successful, this grand plan would help preserve civil liberties at home? Forget it. Every "crisis" in our history has been used as a lame excuse by the political class to further render the Constitution a meaningless piece of paper, and this one is the worst yet. "Homeland Security"?? Wasn't that what the Defense Department was supposed to be for?? No, folks, Tom Ridge's main task will be to help other Federal agancies more effectively cow into silence any sort of resistance movement before it can gather critical mass. Today the airports - tomorrow, Interstate 80. When they are "checking your papers" at every state border and highway tollbooth, you will know Hitler's dream has finally arrived. And guess what? You volunteered - right there in that Florida voting booth.
And please don't sanctimoniously complain to me that you didn't vote for the current administration. If you'd actually get your heads out of the nether regions and actually LOOK at the records of your senators and congress-clones, you would realize that there is not a dime's worth of difference between the two parties, there hasn't been for decades, and both sides, regardless of who's "in" at the time, has been heading for the same program: total power and control over just about everything. If you can show me where the Bill of Rights fits into that plan, I have a bridge to sell you. I hate to suggest this, but Al Gore would have done almost exactly the same things. Haven't you seen him over the last few months, at speaking engagements, proclaiming in that stentorian judgemental voice of his that we should all support the President? He is a child of the System, the one that has fed and nurtured him his entire life, the System he still dreams of being in charge of, someday; so he must maintain the Grand Illusion.
But despite all the Fed, neo-con and Big Media efforts to stifle or marginalize the truth, there is a growing crowd of people who want to return America back to the philosophical roots the Founding Fathers envisioned, people like those who write for lewrockwell.com, givemeliberty.org, antiwar.com, lneilsmith.com, Counterpunch, and to a lesser extent, self-proclaimed electronic "samizdat" like myself and Fred Reed (fredoneverything.com). Read these sites. Find others. Support the ones you like the most financially, if you can. Most importantly, spread the word.
I find it ironic that the punditry was proclaiming with King George's coronation that the Federal government finally had adults back in charge, after 8 years of Clinton. Well, apparently these "adults" now want to give the whole world a spanking, whether it deserves it or not. No, ladies and gentlemen - this Administration, if it keeps doing what it's doing, will lead us all in their madness to the abyss. I, for one, will not step off the edge with them. How about you?
The Madness of King George
New York, March 21, 2002
Dr. Strangelove has taken over the Administration.
Our government's recent proclamation that it will now consider the nuclear option against states that do not possess weapons of mass destruction of any kind has got to send shivers of both fear and anger rippling throughout the entire world.
In our rabid, ill-thought-out "war on terror", it would seem that no action on our part is too egregious, morally bankrupt, or downright insane to be left off the table. The Doomsday Clock has returned - with a vengeance - just when we thought it was safe to live our lives again.
I can't help but remember that the US is the one sitting on 10,000 warheads, and has been the only nation to use nuclear weapons aggressively against a civilian population. There is a grave responsibility that comes with that, and we are now prepared to abrogate it, it seems, and plunge the world into another "defensive" arms race. So who's the "terrorist" here? It was one thing to use nukes as a deterrent, as a force of last resort during the Cold War, in the unlikely event of the USSR launching a massive pre-emptive strike against us. But now it would appear the Administration seeks merely to restore the illusion of invincibility we all had prior to 9/11.
We start with "strategic missile defense". Yes, we've had a couple of victories there. In four separate tests, the anti-missile hit the target. What happens when there are thousands of targets, and even more thousands of decoys? This may sound like some to be un-American on my part, but I hope the damn thing fails. How might this government behave if they thought no one could touch them? Imagine the US having all the big guns, with no one able to shoot back. Now imagine yourself living in China or Russia...or Canada, for that matter. How "safe" will an American truly feel, knowing that everyone hates them, even their "friends"?
At that point, we will have become the Evil Empire, and we all know from history what happens to empires - they collapse from the weight of their own hubris. Always. Every time. No exceptions. Egypt, Greece, Rome, Ottoman, British, Soviet. Find me one political and economic empire that withstood the test of time. Just one. There isn't one. If the entire world, simply from a sense of self-preservation, decides that 'enough is enough" and bands together against the US, all the posturing, technology, and nukes in our arsenal won't save us.
And do you think, even if successful, this grand plan would help preserve civil liberties at home? Forget it. Every "crisis" in our history has been used as a lame excuse by the political class to further render the Constitution a meaningless piece of paper, and this one is the worst yet. "Homeland Security"?? Wasn't that what the Defense Department was supposed to be for?? No, folks, Tom Ridge's main task will be to help other Federal agancies more effectively cow into silence any sort of resistance movement before it can gather critical mass. Today the airports - tomorrow, Interstate 80. When they are "checking your papers" at every state border and highway tollbooth, you will know Hitler's dream has finally arrived. And guess what? You volunteered - right there in that Florida voting booth.
And please don't sanctimoniously complain to me that you didn't vote for the current administration. If you'd actually get your heads out of the nether regions and actually LOOK at the records of your senators and congress-clones, you would realize that there is not a dime's worth of difference between the two parties, there hasn't been for decades, and both sides, regardless of who's "in" at the time, has been heading for the same program: total power and control over just about everything. If you can show me where the Bill of Rights fits into that plan, I have a bridge to sell you. I hate to suggest this, but Al Gore would have done almost exactly the same things. Haven't you seen him over the last few months, at speaking engagements, proclaiming in that stentorian judgemental voice of his that we should all support the President? He is a child of the System, the one that has fed and nurtured him his entire life, the System he still dreams of being in charge of, someday; so he must maintain the Grand Illusion.
But despite all the Fed, neo-con and Big Media efforts to stifle or marginalize the truth, there is a growing crowd of people who want to return America back to the philosophical roots the Founding Fathers envisioned, people like those who write for lewrockwell.com, givemeliberty.org, antiwar.com, lneilsmith.com, Counterpunch, and to a lesser extent, self-proclaimed electronic "samizdat" like myself and Fred Reed (fredoneverything.com). Read these sites. Find others. Support the ones you like the most financially, if you can. Most importantly, spread the word.
I find it ironic that the punditry was proclaiming with King George's coronation that the Federal government finally had adults back in charge, after 8 years of Clinton. Well, apparently these "adults" now want to give the whole world a spanking, whether it deserves it or not. No, ladies and gentlemen - this Administration, if it keeps doing what it's doing, will lead us all in their madness to the abyss. I, for one, will not step off the edge with them. How about you?
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