20 Years into a Dark Future
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, an early-rising friend woke me and said a plane had just hit the World Trade Center in New York. Still not fully awake, I asked her if she had been drinking.
“No,” she said, “it really happened.” As I was to find out, much more was minutes away from happening.
More than 3,000 people died when the chickens came home to roost. How many more lives, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and throughout the world can be attributed to the new direction the world took on that day?
The biggest casualty was democracy. The U.S. pivoted and began marching down the road to authoritarianism.
So what’s this about chickens? The US had been meddling in the Middle East, and exploiting its natural resources. The stench of racism toward its population has ensued for at least the past 50 years. In addition, a strong hatred, and fear, of Islam has been inculcated into the minds of too many Americans. And, before that, our western, “civilized,” friends, Britain and France, had been treating much of the Islamic world as their colonies, redrawing the borders of their made-up countries at will.
The first major foray of America into Middle East dictat was the overthrow of democratically-elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. His crime was nationalizing that country’s oil industry, thereby hurting the profits of US petroleum corporations. Mosaddegh was very popular at the time of the coup d'état in 1953. The US installed the hated, autocratic Shah, Rena Pahlavi, formerly a figurehead, as the actual ruler, and US vassal. Things went from bad to worse and a fundamentalist uprising in 1979 finally kicked the Shah out.
Meanwhile, among Arabs, the US made more enemies, and fostered more fundamentalism. The constant meddling escalated into warfare in 1991 with the Gulf War. At the same time, the Soviet Union was in its death throes, and not in a position to obstruct the US military action against a sometimes ally, Iraq.
Why the US hostility toward Arabs? The insertion of Israel into an area already occupied by Palestinians served to unify Arabs as one people, something the western powers had been working for years to prevent. The US had to dissolve that unity with bribes, “peace initiatives,” threats and assassinations.
Those dirty deeds were mostly accomplished before 9/11 happened. Egypt, Iraq and Syria were no longer shining lights of Arab Socialism. Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states were firmly in the US orbit.
Then, mostly Saudis hijacked planes and flew them into the US centers of finance and militarism. The United States had been sitting atop a unipolar world for only a few years, and now it was falling apart.
But this setback also brought opportunity. With most Americans enraged by the attack on the homeland, the government moved swiftly to consolidate its power and marginalize the rights of Americans.
Did Bush and Cheney know in advance about 9/11? Many people believe they did. Back on July 4, 2001, I was trying to catch a plane home from Europe. My carrier, SwissAir, had gone bankrupt while I was there, so I had to hop around airports to find a seat. Everywhere I went, I saw banner headlines on newspapers that said, “Al Queda to Attack the United States,” or words to that effect. No date was given for the attack, but the word was out. How could it be a shock when it happened two months later?
Whatever the role of the US, it acted fast to make people afraid and to pass restrictive laws never before known in this country. Chief among the changes made by the Bush-Cheney regime was the Patriot Act, which included:
expanded surveillance (the extent of which was exposed by Edward Snowden);
employ counterterrorism efforts in the US; and
eliminate most rights for those accused of terrorism, including US citizens. Immigrants and citizens of other countries became subject to indefinite incarceration.
The Patriot Act has expired, and been reauthorized, several times. It expired on March 20, 2020, but Rep. Jerry Nadler proposed a bill to reauthorize it. His bill was approved by the House with 152 Democrats joining a majority of Republicans in voting for the reauthorization. The Senate then approved an amended version, which was dropped after President Trump (yes, that President Trump) threatened to veto it. The Senate dropped its approval, and the bill remains expired. However, it may well rise again in the future, unless there is a profound change of representatives and other leaders.
The Patriot Act and Guantanamo Bay prison are only two artifact, of many, still remaining from 9/11. With or without them, the forces that would destroy democracy in this country are gaining power. They have already severely damaged the biggest bulwark of democracy, the unions. Led by Texas Republicans, they are undermining the rights of women to control their own bodies. Free speech is taking hits almost every day as billionaires control much of the public dialogue on social media. The income shift is creating more and more poverty, and destroying the middle class. A divided working class makes unity of action problematic.
As former Rolling Stone writer, Matt Taibbi, noted last month in “To Stop War, America Needs a Third Party,” the two-party system has been captured by the military (I would add the “intelligence” spooks and Wall Street to that).
Yes, we need a third party that will speak for working stiffs, not the elite, and won’t mince words when it comes to advocating for an anti-racist, pro-union, democratic party for socialism. It’s the only way we can all journey into a bright future.
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Hang A Flag In The Window
Written and sung by:
David Rovics
We want a safer country
And it's in God we trust
So we'll bomb you during Ramadan
Turn your world into dust
But pull up on your bootstraps
And stand on your own two feet
While we blow them off with cluster bombs
Disguised as something to eat
We stand for freedom
And prosperity
So we'll bomb your schools and hospitals
And make sure you live in misery
All you evildoers
And your children and your wives
With our B-52's we'll show you
How we value civilian lives
Give us your hungry, your restless
We'll show you democracy
A military trial
Or detention indefinitely
We'll have homeland security
Thomas Ridge all hail
We may not find the terrorists
But we can throw the left in jail
And we will all be safe
And we shall have no fears
Once our retinas have been scanned
And all the walls have ears
And we're all in good hands
When the FBI is in the know
We're sure they'll look after us
Just like they did with COINTELPRO
(Chorus)
So hang a flag in the window
And all hail to the chief
Follow the leader
And suspend your disbelief
Our country right or wrong
You know what to do
Sing God bless America
Oh that red, white and blue
When facing anyone with boxcutters
We'll say put up your dukes
As we spend fifty billion
On bombers and nukes
We're a beacon of light
And just to make the point
We'll cut taxes on the rich
And throw the poor into the joint
Yes we'll bail out the airlines
Put on your green fedoras
And for all the laid-off workers
We've got maquiladoras
Yes capitalism will save us
For have you ever seen a
More convincing proof
Than Enron and Argentina
(Chorus)
The Axis of Evil
We'll bomb 'em down the skids
There'll be no more terrorists
Once we kill their kids
People may starve
And economies may crumble
But those folks'll just
Have to learn to be more humble
And give us your money
Debt repayments with aplomb
While we scour the map
For some targets left to bomb
And as another city falls
Upon our sacred American soil
At least we got our Daisy Cutters
And that Alaskan oil
(Chorus)