Will They Do It Again?

3 August 2004
By Jim Weller

Tuesday, September 11, 2001 was a day off work for me. I woke up and, as usual, turned on the local public radio news. When I had listened long enough that morning to get a full picture of what was happening, the really big question for me was this: How could this incredible, horrible attack have happened, entirely unbeknownst to the most powerful national security establishment in world history? It took me awhile to accept the cognitively dissonant but obvious answer: It didn’t. I think Bush knew. It was all part of the big White House plan, which would unfold in due course.

“Nah,” you think. “You must be crazy. The President of the United States would never sacrifice thousands of American lives in some gigantic political power game.” Is that what you think? Well, I don’t. The man-on-the-street Bush apologist says, “Well, we had to do something after 9/11, didn’t we?” Yes, of course. That’s the point. The Bushites wanted to be in that position. And the best their cadre of policy wonks could come up with to do about it was to knock over a couple of weak, impoverished Muslim countries?

Look what Bush has done since then. Well in excess of a thousand U.S. soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many more thousands have been maimed and injured. Increase those numbers at least thirty-fold if you want to estimate how many foreign people are dead and dismembered, and tortured – don’t forget that, as the result of the U.S. military adventures there. Dozens more of us and them fall every day. And it’s getting worse, not better. All for what? The people and the national institutions of Iraq and Afghanistan, such as they were – even the worst of them, were never a threat to the United States. Never. Not in 1991, not in 2001, not in 2003.

So what’s it all about? What’s the big aim of all this fighting and fear and loathing? November 2, 2004, that’s what. It’s about political power in America, Republican power. Bush wants to be the War President. National Super-Hero, Defender of Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Who do you trust more to defend the security of the nation? George W. Bush or John Kerry? That’s it. “We are a nation in danger,” Bush said Sunday, as he raised the terror color code from yellow to orange. “This is a solemn reminder of the threat we continue to face.” Terror is the key factor in the Republican campaign strategy. Bush plans to consolidate political power by terrorizing the U.S. electorate.

I think the Bushites are going to do it again. Stage another terrorist attack in the United States. In the next ten weeks or so, before the election. Maybe it won't have to be such a big production this time. Maybe it'll be a foiled attempt. Maybe they'll catch a few Muslim extremists in the act and kill or capture them. Or maybe they'll only kill a few of us, say a few dozen victims instead of 3,000 as in the 9/11 attacks. Still, it'll scare the living shinola out of the swing voters; make them rally ‘round the flag in a big way. The more ground the Kerry/Edwards campaign gains, the more likely it is that Bush/Cheney will play their ace in the hole. They seem to be preparing the stage now, putting on the Homeland Security high alert. Jack-booted, black-jacketed thugs with assault rifles ready, guarding every financial district street corner.

Go ahead; tell me I’m a conspiracy nut. Yes, I do think the political progenitors of Bush and Cheney snuffed the Kennedys and Malcolm X and Rev. King in the 60’s. It’s the same power elite pulling the wires, now as then. These people will stop at nothing to stay in power –the 9/11 Commission and the Warren Commission reports notwithstanding. As the electoral tide turns against them, they're getting ready to roll out the Terror Factor, and the Big Lie - the sequel.

On the day this fall when we all wake up and say, “My God, how could this happen – again?” Bush will say, "We warned you." And I’ll say, “I told you so.”