It is on the grounds of what i wrote, said, and did back immediately after 9/11, and then after Enduring Freedom got started on October 7, that i believe that i can legitimately claim to be among "Those Who Were Right" 20 years ago. Of the entirely too few others, the most important and significant was, is, and ever will be Cal…
It is on the grounds of what i wrote, said, and did back immediately after 9/11, and then after Enduring Freedom got started on October 7, that i believe that i can legitimately claim to be among "Those Who Were Right" 20 years ago. Of the entirely too few others, the most important and significant was, is, and ever will be California Congresswoman Barbara Lee, the ONLY member of Congress who voted against the AUTHORIZATION TO USE MILITARY FORCE AGAINST TERRORISTS [AUMF], which paved the way into first Afghanistan and Pakistan, and then, into Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Equatorial Africa, Yemen, Syria, and who knows where else in "The Forever War."
Everybody from Bernie Sanders to Ron Paul got that completely and totally wrong. And, of course, the mainstream media of the day was just as totally and completely wrong. But there were a few who saw thru the Bullshit, and challenged it.
However, and having said all that, there is no place of honor or sense of pride in having been "Right" back then ~ twenty years ago ~ about How and Why America's so-called "Global" so-called "War On" so-called "Terrorism" was, is, and ever will be so totally and completely nor merely WRONG, but EVIL. Very few of those Americans who may have felt or thought that way actually did anything in public ~ demonstrations, marches, vigils, teach- and/or sit-ins, letters to DC or the editor, etc ~ to express that sentiment. And those very few who did at least try to do something ~ anything ~ were completely tsunamied by the tides of the time.
And they thus failed completely to first prevent that War, then stop it in Afghanistan, then stop it from expanding into Iraq, and then stop anything Beyond. And ~ except for a brief, weekend-long flurry of activity before we went searching for Saddam's “WMDs” back in 2003 ~ they have been effectively totally silent ever since.
But "The Forever War" is entering a new Phase: When Russia has sufficiently recovered from the collapse of the USSR ~ and China from the madness of Mao ~ to present very real, credible "Threats" to America's global, unipolar hegemony since the end of Cold War I thirty years ago this coming December. And thus looms Cold War II and all that that is guaranteed to involve.
It already is. The day after the last American troop left Kabul, the US House of Representatives approved a $24 billion increase in the Department of Defense's requested budget of $716 billion for Fiscal Year 2022, to "deal with the threat of Russia and China." A reward, one can only suppose, for continuing its streak of now going 76 years without winning a single War [unless one calls Grenada, Panama, and Kuwait "Wars"].
In other words, “The Forever War” was, still is, and will ever be nothing but a half-time show between the two Cold Wars to keep the troops engaged, the defense contractors profitably employed, and the American people comfortably numb to protracted conflicts in places that many of them can't find on a map of the world.
When that last American troop left Kabul on August 31, 2021, it was exactly 7,268 days after October 7, 2001, and 7,267 days too late. And those of us who knew 20 years ago ~ that this War was not only legally, ethically, and morally WRONG, but a Lie, Hoax, Sham, and Scam to boot then at its birth, or came to recognize, acknowledge, and accept that fact over the ensuing years ~ did absolutely nothing THAT ACTUALLY WORKED to end it on anybody's terms and schedule but America's Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex, its Surveillance-Secrecy-Security Panopticon, and the owners and operators of the folks on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, in the Oval Office and up on The Hill.
Having been "Right" about 9/11 and the launch of "The Forever War" was of zero consequence then, and is even more meaningless today unless that knowledge and understanding can be used to look at what is happening in this Nation and on this Planet today, and see the connections and correlations between what happened that day in September, twenty years ago, and exactly What is happening today, and How and Why it is.
Conclusion
It is on the grounds of what i wrote, said, and did back immediately after 9/11, and then after Enduring Freedom got started on October 7, that i believe that i can legitimately claim to be among "Those Who Were Right" 20 years ago. Of the entirely too few others, the most important and significant was, is, and ever will be California Congresswoman Barbara Lee, the ONLY member of Congress who voted against the AUTHORIZATION TO USE MILITARY FORCE AGAINST TERRORISTS [AUMF], which paved the way into first Afghanistan and Pakistan, and then, into Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Equatorial Africa, Yemen, Syria, and who knows where else in "The Forever War."
Everybody from Bernie Sanders to Ron Paul got that completely and totally wrong. And, of course, the mainstream media of the day was just as totally and completely wrong. But there were a few who saw thru the Bullshit, and challenged it.
However, and having said all that, there is no place of honor or sense of pride in having been "Right" back then ~ twenty years ago ~ about How and Why America's so-called "Global" so-called "War On" so-called "Terrorism" was, is, and ever will be so totally and completely nor merely WRONG, but EVIL. Very few of those Americans who may have felt or thought that way actually did anything in public ~ demonstrations, marches, vigils, teach- and/or sit-ins, letters to DC or the editor, etc ~ to express that sentiment. And those very few who did at least try to do something ~ anything ~ were completely tsunamied by the tides of the time.
And they thus failed completely to first prevent that War, then stop it in Afghanistan, then stop it from expanding into Iraq, and then stop anything Beyond. And ~ except for a brief, weekend-long flurry of activity before we went searching for Saddam's “WMDs” back in 2003 ~ they have been effectively totally silent ever since.
But "The Forever War" is entering a new Phase: When Russia has sufficiently recovered from the collapse of the USSR ~ and China from the madness of Mao ~ to present very real, credible "Threats" to America's global, unipolar hegemony since the end of Cold War I thirty years ago this coming December. And thus looms Cold War II and all that that is guaranteed to involve.
It already is. The day after the last American troop left Kabul, the US House of Representatives approved a $24 billion increase in the Department of Defense's requested budget of $716 billion for Fiscal Year 2022, to "deal with the threat of Russia and China." A reward, one can only suppose, for continuing its streak of now going 76 years without winning a single War [unless one calls Grenada, Panama, and Kuwait "Wars"].
In other words, “The Forever War” was, still is, and will ever be nothing but a half-time show between the two Cold Wars to keep the troops engaged, the defense contractors profitably employed, and the American people comfortably numb to protracted conflicts in places that many of them can't find on a map of the world.
When that last American troop left Kabul on August 31, 2021, it was exactly 7,268 days after October 7, 2001, and 7,267 days too late. And those of us who knew 20 years ago ~ that this War was not only legally, ethically, and morally WRONG, but a Lie, Hoax, Sham, and Scam to boot then at its birth, or came to recognize, acknowledge, and accept that fact over the ensuing years ~ did absolutely nothing THAT ACTUALLY WORKED to end it on anybody's terms and schedule but America's Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex, its Surveillance-Secrecy-Security Panopticon, and the owners and operators of the folks on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, in the Oval Office and up on The Hill.
Having been "Right" about 9/11 and the launch of "The Forever War" was of zero consequence then, and is even more meaningless today unless that knowledge and understanding can be used to look at what is happening in this Nation and on this Planet today, and see the connections and correlations between what happened that day in September, twenty years ago, and exactly What is happening today, and How and Why it is.
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