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06/05/2004:

"Well Duh"

It just occurred to me while posting the article below that ‘terrorism’ serves precisely the same purpose that “communism” did to this same bunch of Cold War fascists (which is no overstatement-read the history of post-WWII international fascism). Boo. Terrorists! Suspend the constitution! Occupy the planet! The terrorists are coming! Bush says as much when drawing parallels between the ‘war on terror’ and WWII. And under the cover of their ‘good fight,’ the imperial capitalists tighten their lock on all the world’s resources. Duh.

That’s the difference between then and now: now they have it in their means to attack the whole world. And so confident are they that we are treated daily to tales of their brazen lawlessness. The war on Iraq is itself a distraction.

“The proposition that the United States is fighting a ‘war on terrorism’ is the biggest fallacy in the whole debate or lack of debate about the war…the framing of United States military attacks attacks on Afghanistan as a ‘war on terrorism’ is a strategy used by our political elites to advance their own political economic interests while limiting the truth-telling about the causes behind the terrorist attacks and the nature of the US response. Our political leaders and media are constructing a narrative that helps Americans to sleep at night despite the fact that their military is killing innocent people just like the 9-11 terrorists killed innocent people. A narrative that relies on such abstract values and dichotomies as good/evil [‘Axis of Evil’ anyone?] and freedom/terror works at concealing the truth of what is taking place and ‘manufacturing consent’ a la Chomsky.”
from "A Critical Analysis of the 'War on Terrorism Discourse.'

This article by Eric Wilkinson in 2002 in reference to the Afghani war reads like a prophetic piece, as we are now faced with the choice of either re-electing a pro-war, pro-Israel, pro-corporate globalization president or one just like him to take his place. The American public has been beaten senseless and silent by the media bludgeon labeled ‘War on Terror.’ Rumsfeld made an interesting and ominous rhetorical shift the other day when he referred to the ‘global insurgency,’ a term that suggests that the US is within its rights to go in and ‘put it down’ anywhere in the world as it is trying and failing to do in Iraq. Meanwhile, the corporate takeover is proceeding apace.

“The military and the monetary
They get together when they think it’s necessary
They turn our sons and daughters into mercenaries.
They are turning the world into one big cemetery.”
Gil Scott Heron 1991

If we were smarter, we would have seen this coming. For Cold War crazies like Rumsfeld, the 'war on terrorism' is their dream come true.

The website thecriticalvoice.com from which I got the Wilkinson article seems to be defunct, but here are links to some of the articles he appended to his piece:
Unintended Consequences by John Tirman
Islam Through Western Eyes by Edward Said
Orwellian Logic 101-Terrorism by Norman Solomon
Blowback by Chalmers Johnson