b. traven
The United States, in Tom Engelhardt’s words, has become “the most dangerous country on earth.” And it is not because of our incessant military adventures.
It has been simmering since before WW II, with right wing groups in this country who had favored Fascist Germany as a buttress against Socialism which they felt threatened their ruling supremacy. They viscerally resented the Democrat’s “New Deal” which enfranchised the poor and the working citizens over the interests of the very rich. These same forces have been waging a low-visibility fight against the entire concept of a democracy that treats all of its citizens equally rather than favoring those in the commercial owning class.
Year-by-year they have been making gains in infiltrating, with money and personnel, both the Democratic and Republican Parties until both parties have, in essence, turned their backs on the 99% of citizenry in our country. So we have Donald Trump.
This slow infiltration turned into a high speed takeover of our country by these domestic right-wingers after a handful of Middle Easterners commandeered four sophisticated passenger jets and ended up killing over three and a half thousand Americans. How did that happen? There were no immediate answers but our President at the time told us to let him take care of it and just go “shopping”.
The question of “how it happened” still remained and many posited what the media called “conspiracy theories” that were discounted immediately by a sanctioned ‘official’ explanation that no one believed.
Well, today we have Trump, and Tom Engelhardt does a great job in putting this long fall of a once great democracy into perspective except he doesn’t cover what may make the descent more rational. No one examining the 9/11 incident admits that its planning must have been exceedingly complex and sophisticated. It had to involve these elements:
- The recruitment, vetting, and training in jihadism of 19 individuals. In vetting them their intelligence and dedication had to be evaluated. They had to be sequestered to a certain extent so that no word leaked out.
- The organizers had to have a detailed and deep understanding of locations, facilities, and a complex installed support organization to handle these 19 individuals upon entry into a country that was totally foreign to them.
- In addition the organizers had to have a local support organization to orient the 19 and direct and monitor them.
- Who was most likely to have such a sophisticated support system? Your neighborly intelligence agency. It seems that is the most logical place to look. And who might that be? Well, with 15 of the 19 being Saudis where might one look?
This question lingers as important because Engelhardt rightly posits that climate change due to fossil fuel consumption is truly a “planet” problem and guess who just raised the price of crude oil?
The Contrary Perspective 
Reblogged this on The Secular Jurist.
It would be a credit to common sense if “no one believed” the sanctioned official explanation for the events of 9/11. But I’m afraid far too many swallowed the “story” hook, line, and sinker. So much for common sense.
Add a decided lack of accountability, either towards the supposed perpetrators (right, bin Laden couldn’t have orchestrated the supposed nineteen without spooks) or towards the “failures” that allowed the events to take place largely unhindered.
E.P. Heidner’s “Collateral Damage” covers some “financial” motivations for 9/11. Of course other motives are obvious, but also quite relevant.
I finally got around to reading every word of Tom Englehardt’s original column that triggered this post on TCP. My own analysis of the election results is pretty straightforward: the Democrats put forward a sufficiently repulsive candidate, and the GOP played the Electoral College system sufficiently skillfully, that not enough votes could be mustered for Clinton to offset the “deplorables” who turned out enthusiastically for Trump. The more enthusiastic racists in this country could not stomach Obama’s victory in 2008; their hatred for him bubbled to the surface immediately. They failed to turn him out of office in 2012 only because their narrow Protestant-centric bigotry wouldn’t allow them to vote for the Mormon candidate in that election. This is not “backlash.” This is the bigotry that never went away in this society, all ridiculous talk of “post-racial society” aside. I reject Mr. Englehardt’s notion that FBI Director Comey, whose boss was at the time and remains Pres. Obama, affected the election outcome. The Democrats botched this campaign big-time and are in denial over who is to blame. I will also argue that we already had the coup–it was called “The Patriot Act
,” laying the Bill of Rights to rest. What further damage the Trump administration will do, only time will tell. But I am confident that the Global War On Terror will continue to be a (convenient, for the corporations supplying the Pentagon with its needs) wretched failure and will continue to bring blowback to US shores.