The worst meme coming out of the WH/Pentagon is that 9/11 changed everything. Human history has recorded far more horrifiying uses of terror (and remember that terrorism is a tactic, nothing more and nothing less) such as Dresden, Hiroshima, the Holocaust, mass Cruxifictions, the Crusaders in Jerusalem and more. So what did 9/11 really changed?
It changed
American views on terrorism, not terrorism itself and that has led to another age old phenomenom, the use of terrible events by men and women of power to sweep away all restrictions to said power.
One example is how people within the Pentagon used 9/11 to change the rules. Simply put, the neocons within the halls of the Pentagon sought to enlarge their power (and the power of their bosses). The following demostrates the attempts to shift the paradigm:
To the policy's architects, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon represented a stinging challenge to American power and an imperative to consider measures that might have been unimaginable in less threatening times. Yet some officials said the strategy was also shaped by longstanding political agendas that had relatively little to do with fighting terrorism.
The administration's claim of authority to set up military commissions, as the tribunals are formally known, was guided by a desire to strengthen executive power, officials said. Its legal approach, including the decision not to apply the Geneva Conventions, reflected the determination of some influential officials to halt what they viewed as the United States' reflexive submission to international law.
By TIM GOLDEN of the New York Times
- The National Socialist used the loss and humiliation of WWI and Versailles to justify starting WWII.
- Stalin used the trauma of Great Patriotic War to annex Eastern Europe.
- American Cold Warriors used the Red Threat to topple democratic elected left-leaning goverments and shelter right-wing dictators.
Today the Richard Perles and Paul Wolfowitzs in Washighnton are trying (and to some extend succeeding) in usuing 9/11 in a similar manner. Herman Goering said it best:
Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
None of the above means that the threat is not real. But the truth is that while 9/11 was a terrible event that shows the depth of human evil, it also true that not all the enemies of democracy lie beyond the borders of the West. The enemy within is a dangerous (if ever more subtle) than the enemy without.