The Poet's Eye – 09/27/2004

	The Poet's Eye commentary by Lightning Rod the Poets' Eye is skeptical without being cynical, innocent without being naive and critical without being judgmental


		Academy Award for release on 09-27-04 The 9/11 terrorists deserve the Academy Award for being successful in accomplishing their goals. This was probably the most successful act of terror since the US dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima. With only nineteen soldiers who were willing to die, armed with weapons that were available in any Ace Hardware store, they changed the face of America and the world. Certainly the event did wonders for the Bush Administration. On 9/11 Bushco was clinging by its fingernails to a wisp of legitimacy because of the, shall we say, unconventional manner in which they came to power. The economy was faltering badly. The president went from reading books to schoolchildren on the morning of 9/11 to being The Avenger of the Free Christian World by that afternoon. America was dazed, struck senseless. Anytime you get blindsided you are going to be dazed. The neocons wasted no time in seizing on this state of senselessness. It was an opportunity made in political heaven. Before the dust had settled we had the Patriot Act shoved down our throats and Bush was doing his John Wayne act and shaking his fist and thrusting his jaw and telling the American people that he was going to get somebody for this vile act. It didn't really matter who, but he was going to get Somebody. He was playing to one of the basest human instincts--when you get hurt you want to hurt back. Since it was obvious that the direct perpetrators of the crimes of 9/11 were buried in the rubble with their victims and thus beyond prosecution, it was fair to ask who, if anyone, had helped plan and finance and execute these acts. Which led us to Al Queda and Osama bin Laden. For awhile the boys at Bushco dallied with his capture. Then they gradually shifted back to their pre 9/11 plans to invade Afghanistan and Iraq for commercial purposes. In the case of Afghanistan it was to secure pipeline routes and in Iraq it was to gain control over the world's second largest oil reserves. It wasn't hard immediately after 9/11 to sell the American people on an invasion of Afghanistan. After all that's where bin Laden hung out. Besides the Big Bad Taliban wouldn't let women go to school. But when it was time to invade Iraq, the government needed better excuses. The whole WMD excuse was a blatant lie told for the purpose of selling the invasion to the public and to Congress. Iraq was a country that US planes had been overflying every day for a decade. We knew they had no real weapons capability. At the same time we did know that several other countries like Korea and Iran and Pakistan and India and even Israel had already developed nuclear weapons. I'm not talking about a little anthrax on the back of an eighteen wheeler here. I'm talking about power plants producing nuclear materials and the giant industrial complexes that are required to manufacture these weapons and their delivery systems. These aren't things that you can assemble in your basement. When that lie starting unraveling, even before the invasion, the Bushies fell back on the Saddam Was a Real Bad Guy excuse. Sure he was a real bad guy, but hey, there are a lot of real bad guys in this world. Should we go after them all? There's Kim Jong-il, the communist Chinese, and various South American and African and Asian despots. There is Osama bin Laden, remember him? He's the one that actually hurt us. But, of course he has no oil. Why do I say that the terrorists have accomplished their goal? 1. Fear has become the ruling factor in our political discourse. Every time a politician opens his mouth in the post 9/11 world, he mentions our safety and security. We are in lock-down mode. If, as Lenin said, the purpose of terrorism is terror, then the terrorists have achieved their purpose. 2. As a knee-jerk reaction to the attacks, we repeated the very mistake that generated the terrorism in the first place by invading and occupying sovereign countries in the Muslim World. Now it is easier for zealots like Osama bin Laden to sell the notion that America is The Great Satan and to recruit more possible terrorists and suicide bombers. 3. We, as a country, have had to significantly change our way of life. We stand patiently in line at airports waiting to be frisked. Our personal papers and records are no longer safe from examination and seizure. They can break into your house and search it without even telling you. Pop stars with Arabic names can't even get into the country. The Poet's Eye sees that if anyone has the right to proclaim "Mission Accomplished," it is not George Bush but Osama bin Laden.
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			"First, I'd like to thank the Academy and Allah. And my special effects people, and the little men and women who gave their all to make this the stunning production that it was. And I'd like to thank the great country that make this all possible."

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