Why a second Bush term is opportunity, not crisis for the 9/11 movement
By Jeremy Baker
No sensible person would attempt to minimize the gravity of W’s recent re-selection to the highest office on the planet, and the implications of his extended reign is understandably sending shockwaves through the hearts and minds of those who are enlightened enough politically to see through this administration’s hypocrisies and Christianity-abuse.
Amidst this medieval evolutionary backslide it’s understandable that well-meaning social reformers and dedicated 9/11 activists might feel compelled to fold their wings and founder beneath this manufactured, illusory wave of conservatism, frustrated that their simple goal — that this country can emerge from its 9/11 induced coma and right itself again — may remain but a quixotic delusion, the windmills we tilt at having been recently reinforced with DU girded blades.
But I believe, and have said so many times before, that a republican victory in 2004 may not be the disaster that it seems and may, in fact, allow us the protracted opportunity to pursue justice for those who fell victim to 9/11 and the Bushites and finish the job that we spent so much of 2004 beginning. With W and his minions still tight under the spotlight we can deprive our “friendly fascists” of the chance to ride off on their gold plated saddles into an oily Texas sunset.
Certainly we’ve seen this sort of thing before. The Warren Commission debacle, which predictably concluded that bullet enchanter and Castro confidante Lee Harvey Oswald outwitted the entire secret service, indoctrinated us to the reality of a shadow government and its parasitic death grip on our ostensibly legitimate one. And surely the manipulative fairytale spawned from the assassination of JFK has served several factions, each in different ways.
It gave the paste-eating, Fox watchers something to cling to amid the frightening appearance of a world crumbling beneath their feet. It also allowed the ivy-strangled, conflict addicted psychopaths in the Pentagon, White House and on Capitol Hill (whose demented obsession with global villainy only serves to showcase their own) the encouragement to do what they do best; confidently fashion secret policies that could never withstand the light of day — and do so with impunity.
But to others the self-acquitting fiction crafted by this “investigative body” has served as a road map, an opportunity to take a guest’s tour down the rabbit hole. It’s given us a rare chance to observe the inner workings of the blood-soaked and money-numbed elite who, with a twitch of their forked tails, can set armies marching and stock prices fluctuating. The invaluable lessons we draw from the observation of such a seminal historic charade, and the clumsy efforts to package and perfume it, have supplied us with all the necessary insight we need to track the footprints of the even greater demons that plague us so cruelly today.
We can, as well, draw encouragement from the fact that it took three years for New Orleans DA Jim Garrison to even begin his secret, ad hoc investigation into the murder of JFK whereas, in the same amount of time after 9/11, and as 2004 comes to a close, we can look back on twelve months of international, convention-style events that have expansively detailed the obvious fraud of 9/11 and see that, as our traitorous countrymen plot and scheme with renewed expertise, we too have become more wily in our ways and are able to dog every step these merchants of misery take. Like never before, we’re able to recognize the pathology of criminal politics and the cover-ups that inevitably ensue.
As Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein put the finishing touches on their case against Richard Nixon it wasn’t frantically squeezed into the last few weeks of the election cycle in hopes that a second republican term could be narrowly averted. As they pounded the last few nails into the political fortunes of Richard Nixon — the last Republican deity whose criminal maneuvering cost him the most hallowed of all political ground — televisions everywhere covered the inauguration of his second term in office, a celebration that, in historic hindsight, proved to be nothing more than a monster’s ball preceding one of the most despicable political calumnies of the century.
When we despair at how long it takes for our work to bear fruit it’s important to consider that during the congressional investigation into Watergate it took nine months alone for the request that Nixon deliver his tapes to the committee to be honored. It’s important as well to acknowledge that another ill-considered war was being waged at that time, the one that our recent incursion into Iraq is most often equated with. Certainly the traumatic and delusional flag waving of the early seventies seduced and infected the minds of those who might otherwise have known better — conditions that, if absent, may’ve hastened Nixon’s downfall if not thwarted his advent altogether. But crashing down from on high he did indeed come and, in our post election shock and disappointment, it’s the spirit of WoodStein that must infect us all now.
The indelible profundity of the Asian adage that crisis is opportunity has never been more applicable to an historic event as it is the “attacks” of September 11th. 9/11 has always been, since the first plane slammed into the north tower, the golden opportunity of generations to expose and process the sanctioned villainy (oft times masquerading as religious zeal) that otherwise lies hidden, out of sight and mind, in the shadows. When the dragon sticks it’s neck this far out of its den, it becomes incumbent upon us, as activists and true patriots, to not pass up the opportunity to slice its head off.
Those of us who’ve committed ourselves to pursuing justice in regard to 9/11 must not see the re-election of George W. Bush as an indication that our efforts will only end up a fools errand, doomed to failure in a world that’s hopelessly gone to seed and has, in its indulgence and apathy, become immune to the promptings of what Abraham Lincoln once famously called “the better angels of our nature.” The human spirit is always available for inspiration and is just as susceptible to the seduction of character and virtue as it is of sloth and decay. And certainly, as we work towards justice, as we should, this must become our task; the re-animation of that which should truly inspire our actions and cleanse our motives — a secular re-awakening of the golden rule and the non-denominational instinct that guides the hearts of all good people.
The longevity of the Bushites, not unlike the inexplicable black hole of Reagan years, must be acknowledged as being exactly what it is; opportunity, not disaster. For those of us who may’ve forgotten, George Herbert Walker Bush was embroiled in a controversy nicknamed Iraq-gate in the months before his replacement by Bill Clinton. His loss in that election had the ironic result of allowing him to slip through the noose of what could then have become a legacy tainting debacle; the exposure of the many good years that he and his goodfellas gave to a man who was then a good friend and partner to us in oil country, Saddam Hussein.
To those of us who politically potty-trained ourselves years ago, the defeat of W in the election of 2004 would certainly have been a preferable outcome. But there’s reason to believe that this may only have allowed the perps to steal away into the night and live to scheme another day, hatching perhaps even more diabolical assaults for when they next squirm to the surface of the political mire. But keeping W and his increasingly reckless handlers out in the open where we can carefully scrutinize their every move may, in the end, prove to be the piper’s prize and give us exactly what we really need; more time and opportunity to build our case and get the most accomplished.
In the 50’s Israeli spies disguised themselves as Arabs and bombed American and British restaurants, movie theatres and discoth?ques in Cairo with the obvious intent of arousing global condemnation of the Muslim states and unleashing western military might against their age old nemesis. But when a bomb exploded prematurely and the perpetrators were unmasked the scheme unraveled and the subterfuge was exposed. The subsequent scandal, the Lavon Affair, tore the fledgling Israeli government apart and almost brought it down altogether. It took six years for that lie to fully unfold and for justice to be done. In regard to 9/11, a far more shocking and murderous event, it’s now three years after the fact and we are, in my admittedly humble opinion, way ahead of the game.
The pathology of cover up and the reality of government malfeasance has gradually become a part of the mainstream mind, however spun and distorted it is by the news media and prevailing trends. The internet has allowed the instant trafficking of information in a way that the world has never known before, providing a clearinghouse of insight previously unheard of in the thousands of years of human history. Another four years of republican rule gives our rightwing friends the opportunity to show their God and the world the true, sulphorous quality of their service. But it also gives us the opportunity to refine our message and cast more light on the lies and self-interest that drive their agendas.
But we must continue working. We must not be laid low by circumstances that aren’t jibing with our righteous expectations. The struggle for freedom and the establishment of a workable political system is not something that is ever achieved once and then enjoyed forever. It’s a battle that engages us always, surrounding us in political terms at all times. But a similar conflict is waged within us as well, struggling as we do against the tyranny of our own personal demons.
Sooner or later this illusory cultural fever will break and a semblance of normality will once again reign. But we mustn’t presume that the laws of nature, the rhythm of increase and decrease, will do our work for us. What’s spoiled by the hand of humankind must be made whole again by the careful charity of those same hands. Those of us who don’t typically take an activist stance must do so now. Those who aren’t usually perceptive social critics must become so now. And if we can dispel the illusion that the attacks of September 11th were indeed what we’ve been told they were, the whole house of cards, and the men and women who have built it, can finally come tumbling down.
9/11 is the key. The overt chicanery of the attacks and all that has followed in its wake gives us the chance we’ve been waiting for to bring what once seemed invincible to its knees. This is the time we must embrace. This is the occasion we must take full advantage of. Our goals are closer to than they may appear but we must redouble our efforts to see them through to their final fruition.
Our efforts to expose the epic fraud of 9/11 and put it before the world is going to be, in the words of a certain well connected public figure, “a long, hard slog.” Any way you look at it, we have much work yet to do and ironically the re-election of Bush may allow us the opportunity to pursue our goals and see that justice is served after all — not as a vague historical reference or an Oliver Stone movie, but as actual accountability, served cold while the instigators remain centered in the spotlight, piling sin on top of sin, until their crimes can no longer be censored and white-washed, even by a docile, 9/11 stunned public. The Bush administration’s tenure will force them to own their actions and not allow them to slip away into the oblivion of history, an outcome that, despite recent worrisome and alarming developments, does still remain firmly in our hands.
Jeremy Baker