vrijdag 19 januari 2007

The Empire 146

'Tomgram: Crusading in the Arc of Instability'.
George Bush's Crusading Scorecard (2001-2007)
The Look of a War against Islam
By Tom Engelhardt

Just five days after the September 11th attacks in 2001, in a Q and A with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, a President with a new mission, a new cause, and a new purpose in life told the American people that, though they had to "go back to work tomorrow," they should now know that they were facing a "new kind of evil." He added, "And we understand. And the American people are beginning to understand. This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while."
This crusade, this war on terrorism. It had such a ring to it; in the Arab world, of course, it was a ring many centuries old and deeply disturbing. And it came so naturally, so easily off the President's tongue (though it took days of backtracking by his spokesmen and prominent presidential references to "the peaceful teachings of Islam" perverted by "a fringe form of Islamic extremism" to begin to make up for it). But that little "slip" of the tongue spoke volumes. It signaled that George W. Bush was already in his own heroic dream world and, only those few days after the 9/11 attacks, had both a "crusade" on the brain and "victory" in that crusade firmly in mind. As a result, he made this promise to the American people: "It is time for us to win the first war of the 21st century decisively, so that our children and our grandchildren can live peacefully into the 21st century."
Now, here we are, just over five years further into the 21st century, and the President, who only nine months ago was still proudly (if a little desperately) trumpeting his "strategy for victory" in Iraq, now speaks vaguely about "success," or about a "victory," no longer decisive, that "will not look like the ones our fathers and grandfathers achieved… [with a] surrender ceremony on the deck of a battleship." And when it comes to our "children and grandchildren living peacefully into the 21st century," tell that to the 21,500 Americans about to be "surged" into the murderous streets and alleys of Baghdad.
As for that "Global War on Terror," with the fifth anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo as the Devil's Island of the twenty-first century just past; after all the extraordinary renditions, the waterboardings, the perverse tortures and perverse photos that went with them; after the "ghost prisoners" and the network of secret CIA prisons set up around the world; after that Delta Force intelligence agent stepped off a plane from Afghanistan (as journalist Ron Suskind tells the story in his book The One Percent Doctrine) with the suspected head of al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri in a "US Government" metal box (it was somebody else's); after the CIA was denounced throughout Europe for its illegal rendition flights and with its agents just now heading toward trial in Italy for a kidnapping operation on the streets of Milan; after neither Osama bin Laden, nor Zawahiri were ever apprehended; after woebegone wannabes, the innocent, and small fry of every sort were turned into Public Enemies numbers 1-1,000; after, in the name of national safety from terror, illegal spying and warrantless surveillance, as well as military intelligence activities of many kinds, made their way into "the Homeland"; after the Taliban rose from the grave and the original al-Qaeda (as opposed to the name-stealing al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia or other al-Qaeda wannabes elsewhere on our planet) found a relatively comfortable homeland, a "safe haven" along the Pakistani tribal borderlands near Afghanistan; after all of that, the GWOT (as it so inelegantly came to be known) could easily be renamed something like the "misfire on terror" (MOT) or even, with an eye to what's developed in Iraq and elsewhere, the "engine for terror" (EFT).'

Lees verder: http://www.tomdispatch.com/

1 opmerking:

Anoniem zei

CALAMITEITEN-CONTAINER VOOR HUIS HELEEN EN LIEUWE

Op de avond voor de moord op Theo van Gogh stond voor het huis van zijn ex Heleen en hun zoon Lieuwe een 'donkerblauwe vrachtauto stationair te draaien met op de zijkant in grote witte letters CALAMITEITEN-CONTAINER'. Er zat niemand achter het stuur. Dat schrijft Heleen Hartmans vandaag in Metro. Ze beeindigt haar stuk met 'Inmiddels weet ik wel wat de Calamiteiten-container voor mijn huis deed. Negen maanden later, via het OM, liet de AIVD weten: "Die stond daar gewoon!"' Eerder kwamen al merkwaardige banden aan het licht tussen de AIVD en moordenaar Mohammed B. Vast is wel komen te staan dat de AIVD de groep rond Mohammed B. al maanden op de korrel had maar niet ingreep om de moord op Van Gogh te voorkomen. Uit de onthulling van de container van Hartman blijkt een nog veel nauwere betrokkenheid van de autoriteiten bij de moord dan tot dusver werd aangenomen.

Merkwaardig genoeg is de onthulling van Hartman voor Metro blijkbaar niet interessant genoeg om op de voorpagina te zetten. Daar staat wel een ander bericht naar aanleiding van haar stuk, namelijk over haar ergernis rond het gesol met de herdenkings-monumenten voor Theo. Ook hieruit blijkt al wel hoezeer de overheid Van Gogh in feite als een vijand zag: een mooi en duidelijk gedenkteken wordt hem blijkbaar niet gegund. De nauwe betrokkenheid van de AIVD is des te schokkender nu aan het licht is gekomen dat een journalist van NRC Handelsblad, Robert Giebels, per september de positie van hoofd Communicatie bij de AIVD gaat bekleden. NRC was al de krant die het meest negatief over Van Gogh schreef. Een reden hiertoe was de artikelenreeks op de website van Van Gogh van Lux et Libertas Ombudsman Micha Kat.

http://www.klokkenluideronline.nl/print.php?sid=323