(Note: a recent diary on this by DanK Is Back is scrolling off the "Recent Diaries" list, and this needs to be played up. - o.h.)
Wow. Who knew a terrorist attack on the U.S. was a "correction"?
Who knew? Donald Rumsfeld, that's who.
On December 12, 2006, after the Democrats had taken control of Congress, his seat at the Defense Department still warm from his resignation in disgrace a few weeks earlier, Rumsfeld, addressing what he knew to be a friendly group of "coughmilitary analystscough," and bemoaning the deteriorating political environment in Washington brought about by the Democrats' ascendence, blurted out the secret wet-dream fantasy of every warmongering neocon Republican. In essence, Rumsfeld said,
We need another terrorist attack on this country to further our political agenda.
As Jason Linkins at HuffPo reports, the diligent rummagers who have been combing through the Pentagon's document dump surrounding the "military analyst" propaganda campaign have unearthed some nuggets - but probably none so far as significant as this. It reminds me of the chilling revelations provided by the transcription of the Nixon tapes, when they finally were released.
In the relevant clip, Rumsfeld is commiserating with the retired Pentagon whores, erm, military analysts, about the difficulty of selling the Iraq occupation, particularly given the new Democratic Congress. He bemoans the country's lack of gullibility sophisticated understanding about security matters, saying (all emphases added),
[I]t's a shame we [Americans] don't have the maturity to recognize the seriousness of the threats . . . [Y]ou'd think we'd be able to understand it, but as a society, the longer you get away from 9/11 . . .
The reason for the dropoff in TERROR!!!, of course, as Rumsfeld points out, is that - well, let's face it,
This President's pretty much a victim of success. We haven't had an attack in five years.
[Note to self: Add this to the "You Can't Make This Shit Up" file.]
But, ever the problem solver, Rumsfeld is not without a practical solution to the collapse of the Fear Mongering Bubble:
The perception of the threat is so low in this society that it's not surprising that the behavior pattern reflects a low threat assessment. The same thing's in Europe, there's a low threat perception. The correction for that, I suppose, is an attack. And when that happens, then everyone gets energized . . .
Yup - nothing energizes like a terrorist attack! Makes me, ahh, stand taller just thinkin' about it!
Good God.