The nation as a whole lost, as opposed to the ruling elites, because the underlying ideology of empire was never extinguished. The idea of US global domination was put on hold by the global scale of the Soviet Union (the price for stopping the rise of Germany as a hegemon), but once that dissolved it was game on again. So, after 1990 the US moved from the middle of Germany and enlarged NATO steadily eastward. It was as if prior to 1990 the US had Europe by the waist, and after 1990 it had Europe by the neck. Coupled with the encirclement of east Asia by the US navy, the US has encircled the Eurasian land mass, and Messianic Global Manifest Destiny seems within reach.
The problem of course is that Russia and China still stand in the way as regional hegemons in an increasingly multipolar world, and given US imperial overstretch will thwart the US goal. What is so dangerous is that the US thinks of its ideology as it did in the 19th. century. The reality is that the US is not up against an outgunned group of native Americans or Mexicans, but against powers that can also destroy the world, and just might if they view the US as an existential threat.
True victory for the US, and the world comes when the imperial ideology is snuffed out and replaced with one of being content to be a nation among nations, in a true multipolar world.
As Orwell might put it: What we have here is a Eurasia with its Putin, an Eastasia with its Xi, and an Oceania with a whole bunch of Big Brother Wanna-Bes.
What can the US government point to since 9/11 that has been supportive of human rights, of international law, of human progress? How has US foreign policy been positive? How has US government policy, foreign or domestic, been supportive of the American people?
One thing is certain. Since 9/11 big profits have been made. Any company or individual that contracts to the US armed forces has been doing fine. It is also true that Congress has served profit quite well as shown by the takeoff of the 1%.
Though the above is clear for anyone to see, nothing has been done about it. Regulatory agencies of the government have been neutered and this is to be expected since profit controls Congress, confirmed by the continual freeing of profit from restraint. Businesses forget about producing anything and instead pump up their stock with buybacks.
It all comes down to the political system of the US being rotten and the Constitution being just a piece of paper except when profit can employ it as is the case with the 2nd amendment. The 1st amendment is in the process of being proven empty with the Assange case.
To tie a ribbon on the rot, we're down to a contest between a war criminal and a narcissist obsessed with profit for the Presidency, with many people calling on the electorate to vote for one to protect against the other. May the best man win?!
Worst of all, community is on the ropes as people bury themselves in their stuff while fearing the stranger. All of the things I was taught as a youth in school have proven a mirage confirmed by our determination to undercut all that we are supposed to hold dear. Being all in for a genocide without apology shows we have reached the bottom of the barrel.
There is definitely an uproar, but it is unproductive blind rage that looks at immigrants or non-whites or at anything except the real basis of our malaise - the country has been bought by wealth and nobody is looking at the wealthy as being involved, let alone being held responsible to give back what has been stolen under the pretense of "the free market". The blindness is shown by a billionaire with no principles being the champion for change when he is the poster boy for the real problem.
And on the streets of America, as global warming is undeniably in progress due to decades of fossil fuel consumption, the response is a craze for big pickups and SUV's with large gasoline engines. One must ask, are we simply getting what we deserve?
Maybe another question is when did the US lose the Cold War. I'm open to the argument - made by some financial writers I read - that it was 1971 when Nixon to took the US off the gold standard to fund the war in Vietnam. Our current $34 trillion deficit and the uncontrolled growth of the firepower and spy industries grew out of a fiat currency and the ability to raise money without increasing taxes.
What about 1947 when the National Security Agency was created to counter the USSR? The USSR is long gone but the national security state takes on more layers all the time, with no cold war around.
The State/Defense Department relationship reminds me of the old joke about the man who went to see a doctor about a frog on the top of his head. When the doctor asked, "What can I do for you?", the frog answered, "Can you get this growth off my ass?"
If the National Security State actually paid for all the militarism and war making through taxes, the tax burden in the US would be sky high. But that would not go down so well, so intead the cost of militarism and war making is simply added to the debt. And then, very disingenously, the neoliberals and neocons use the high level of debt to gut all social programs--Social Security, Medicare, etc. Their dream is to completely eliminate all budgetary line items in the Federal budget except one--the National Security State apparatus.
Thank You, Bill, for including that quote from James Madison on the most dreaded enemy of Liberty: War.
Every candidate for every elected Federal office should be required to read that quote live on national television; and then explain whether of not they agree with it, and Why or Why Not. Starting with Biden and Trump.
Only the US can get away with gargantuan debt levels because the US dollar remains the world's reserve currency. So, they can just keep printing more dollars without limit or consequences. If that privileged status were to ever go away, the game is up. Hence, everything possible is done to maintain the current set-up. Meanwhile, the mother of all entitlement programs, the National Security State apparatus, always gets a blank check, with no serious oversight or accountability. The level of rot and corruption is off the charts.
The spigot for weapons and war making is wide open, 24/7. After all, the objective is not to win wars; the objective is "forever war," to keep the funds flowing to the MIC and the political class who are whores for the MIC. It's a self-perpetuating scam.
Before nation-states emerged, Jeff, many wars ended when one side or the other ran out of money and couldn't pay the troops.
But my real point was that Americans are routinely told we don't have the money for higher wages, or health care, or infrastructure improvements, or even books and school lunches for our kids, yet there's always $60 billion for Ukraine, $17 billion for Israel, almost $900 billion for the Pentagon, etc. I think that is "amazing" how that idea is sold to us--and how so many people accept it.
i wasn't talking about wars ending because there was no more money to pay for it, Bill. i was talking about wars not getting started in the first place because there wasn't money to pay for it.
And Yes, it is amazing how effectively that idea of sufficient money for War is sold. But not at all really amazing that so many people accept it.
What else have they or their parents Ever known except that?
During his attempts to pressure Raffensperger into changing the election results, Trump said, "I just want to find 11,780 votes", the minimum number needed to overcome Biden's advantage in Georgia.
1 The most informative, insightful, and inspiring ~ and thus Important ~ movie i have watched in a long, Long time;
2. The most informative, insightful, and inspiring ~ and thus Important ~ book i have read in a long, Long time;
3. The best Music Video i have seen in a long, Long time.
~ 1. The movie is HOW TO START A REVOLUTION: A look at the life and work of Gene Sharp, this Planet’s premier Student, Teacher, Theoretician, Scholar, and Guide for Strategic Nonviolent Action and, as necessary, Strategic Nonviolent War. The film is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKnoUbDIpjo .
~ 2. The book is NONVIOLENT STRUGGLE: 50 CRUCIAL POINTS from CANVAS, the Centre for Applied NonViolent Action and Strategies. In a previous incarnation, CANVAS was OTPOR [Serbian for “RESISTANCE”], the Student Movement that led the overthrow of Yugoslavian Dictator Slobodan Milošević in October 2000. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otpor ] The book is available for PDF download at https://canvasopedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/50-Crucial-Points-web.pdf .
*** Just for the record, there are some non-Christian non-Nationalists who believe that Human Rights do NOT come from Government at all, as well. Or from God...: ***
GET A LOAD OF THESE INSANE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS WHO BELIEVED RIGHTS COME FROM GOD AND NOT THE GOVERNMENT BabylonBee / 23 Feb 23
You're not gonna believe this. Check out this list of radical Christian nationalists who believe inalienable human rights are endowed on them by some sort of higher power, a Creator, or something like that, and not by the federal government.
1. This idiot named JOHN LOCKE: This loser thought liberty came from the Law of Nature and wasn't subject to the "legislative authority of man." Whatever that means. Rights come from the government. EVERYONE knows that.
2. Total loser THOMAS JEFFERSON: Just look at the unhinged insanity in the eyes of this deranged radical.
3. This stupid thing called THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..." UHG. Who wrote this crap?
4. Some dummy named THOMAS PAINE: Paine claimed that every child born into the world must be considered as deriving its existence from God. Uh, yeah. Ok, weirdo.
5. Moron and inventor of lightning BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: This creep said that liberty is derived from the laws of God. Put this one on an FBI Watchlist…he's about to storm the Capitol.
These guys are all dummies. Do human rights come from God? Never. Rights come from the government and are disseminated to the population through the mainstream media. We need to stamp out this ridiculous scourge of Christian nationalism wherever we see it... before we lose our democracy.
CONFRONTING THE EMPIRE: It’s Past Time…; Or, Essential Elements of Information For The WAR AGAINST WAR [Originally posted 05 Jan 07; Updated 24 Feb 24]
[NOTE: Essential Elements of Information ~ EEI~ are those critical items of information or intelligence required to plan and execute a military operation. This is a response to Justin Raimondo’s January 5, 2007 www.antiwar.com piece CONFRONTING THE EMPIRE: It’s Time… .]
“The time to have begun confronting this Empire after September 11, 2001, was September 12, 2001. For the sake of argument - and so as to retain at least the slightest glimmer of hope - let us assume that it is not too late….”
If the intent is not simply to confront the American Empire, but rather to effectively combat it so as to eventually conquer and defeat, and ultimately to destroy it, then what is required is a WAR AGAINST WAR. As a start point for developing a tactical and strategic foundation upon which to wage this WAR AGAINST WAR, consider the following Essential Elements of Information [EEI] at the beginning of the seventh year of the 21st century:
EEI 1: Any attempt to end the war in Iraq, or to prevent whatever other foreign and domestic outrages and abominations are planned ahead, that does not start with the PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY and its "new Pearl Harbor," the Terror Event of September 11, 2001, has failed and will continue to fail as at best, naively sophomoric, and at worst, willfully negligent.
Sophomoric because if 9/11 did not happen, this government and its media could not and would not have been able to convince the American people that war in Iraq [or Afghanistan] was necessary. It would have needed some other pretext and rationale, some other "new Pearl Harbor."
Negligent because anything and everything that the War Regime wants to do has been, will be, and can be explained, validated, and justified as an appropriate, necessary, legal, and moral response and reaction to 9/11. Anything and everything. It has been this way since September 12, 2001, and will continue to be so until 9/11 happens once again, until there is the Second Terror Event, the second “new Pearl Harbor.”
EEI 2: In any war -- but most particularly in this war, this so-called War Against so-called Terrorism -- the fundamental principle governing the distribution and flow of information and knowledge is very simple: "NEED TO KNOW." Individuals and organizations are given only the information and knowledge that they absolutely must have -- and only when they absolutely must have it -- in order to accomplish their task or satisfy their function in the accomplishment of the larger mission at hand.
In this "war," the American people have made it abundantly clear that they willingly, dutifully, and passively accept their government's dictate that they, the people, have no need whatsoever to know The Truth about The Terror Event of September 11, 2001: the Truth about WHAT actually happened; about HOW it actually happened; about WHY it actually happened; about WHO actually made it happen; and about who actually LET it happen.
Not only do the American people accept that they have no need to know The Truth about 9/11, they have also made it abundantly clear that they do not WANT to know The Truth about 9/11. For that Truth, they well suspect, may be "too terrible to bear." To take the harshest example, what would happen to the stock market [and everybody’s 401K, retirement fund, home value, etc etc etc,] if it were proven without any doubt [or even confessed] that senior officials of the U.S. government or its ruling elite had ordered, planned, facilitated, executed, and covered-up 9/11? And THEN what would happen?
One can almost see Jack Nicholson's character in A FEW GOOD MEN, the Marine General, standing at Ground Zero in New York City and bellowing: "The TRUTH?!?!? You can't HANDLE The Truth!!!"
EEI 3: The "success" of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 could have happened ONLY as the direct result of the biggest government failure in the history of this nation: the biggest immigration, civil, and criminal law enforcement failure; the biggest intelligence and anti-terrorism failure, the biggest airport security and highjacked aircraft protocol reaction and response failure; and the biggest national defense and homeland security failure. Ever.
As a direct result of these individual and organizational failures, this government thus completely failed its Constitutionally-mandated ultimate duty and responsibility to preserve and protect the life, liberty, and property of American citizens. As a direct result of these failures, three thousand people were dead, tens of thousands were injured, and private and public property worth tens of billions of dollars was lost, damaged, or destroyed.
EEI 4: To date, not one single U.S. government official -- not one elected politician, not one entrenched career civilian or military bureaucrat, not one anointed political appointee -- has been held accountable or been made responsible for his or her role in this greatest failure. Not one.
In fact, those individuals, agencies, departments, and organizations most directly culpable and complicit, whose failures on and before September 11, 2001 enabled 9/11 to be the "success" it was and is ~ the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, the Department of Defense, the White House and its National Security Council ~ have been rewarded with quantum jumps in increased political and legal power and authority, manpower, and, especially, money. And they all have a new Big Brother agency, the Department of Homeland Security.
EEI 5: The Terror Event of September 11 is the most ambitious, audacious, effective, and thus successful psychological warfare operation in history.
It was conceived, planned, ordered, and executed with one specific intention: to create a "new Pearl Harbor," an "attack on America" that would shock and awe the American people and the so-called "civilized" world into:
a] eager endorsement of and willing participation in the grandest attempt at global political, economic, and military domination and control since Alexander The Great, Genghis Khan, and the creation of the European colonial empires in the 15th to early 20th centuries; and,
b] passive acceptance of and dutiful compliance with the biggest grab for government power on this planet since Stalin's Russia in the 20s, Hitler's Germany and Roosevelt's New Deal in the 30s, and Mao's China in the 40s.
In fact, 9/11 was a velvet-glove Coup d'Etat, the beginning of the end [if not the actual end] of traditional, Constitutionally-driven representative government in the United States and its systems of "checks and balances." 9/11 eliminated the legislative branch as an effectively functional element of the federal government. It also ended all pretense of a "loyal opposition" in national party politics, and the print and electronic media as a legitimate "honest broker."
In short, it was a complete success. Not since The Reichstag Fire in Berlin on the night of February 28, 1933 has there been such a success.
EEI 6: The total failure of the American peace, anti-war, and social justice movement to effectively deal with and thus have any impact whatsoever on the actions of the American government since 9/11 can be explained by a very simple question that was asked, over and over again way back in October, 2002, but which no one at any level of the American or international peace, anti-war, and social justice community deigned to even acknowledge, let alone answer:
“On what conceivable basis does anyone believe that the strategies and tactics, the philosophies and processes, the methods and techniques, the actions and events that were and are totally useless and helpless to prevent or then stop the so-called War Against so-called Terrorism, and that did not stop the American bombing of the former Yugoslavia, and that did not prevent the American invasion of the Persian Gulf [aka Gulf War I], and that has not ended the American-mandated Sanctions Against the People of Iraq, and that failed to terminate the American Rape of Central America in the 80s, and that, finally, did not bring about an end to the hostilities of the American War in Vietnam until North Vietnamese forces liberated Saigon…: On the basis of all that, on what conceivable basis does anyone believe that these same strategies and tactics, these same philosophies and processes, these same methods and techniques, these same actions and events will STOP THE PLANNED AMERICAN MILITARY AGGRESSION AGAINST IRAQ?!?”
EEI 7: This WAR AGAINST WAR cannot even be fought so long as those who would wage it insist upon fighting symptoms and not the disease. The symptoms are the so-called “Global” so-called “War On” so-called “Terrorism” and its various manifestations at home and abroad [Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, USA PATRIOT, record budget deficits, a new Draft, etc etc etc]. The disease is the Lie, the Hoax, the Sham, and the Scam that is The Terror Event of 9/11.
Unless and until a critical mass of the American people demand and get the truth about What actually happened on 9/11, about How and Why it actually happened, about Who actually made it happen, and about who actually Let it Happen, there is nothing that anyone, anywhere at any time will be able to do to stop the War Regime from doing anything that it wants to do, any time it wants to do it, anywhere it wants, at home or abroad.
EEI 8: The single most important Question any person who would consider enlisting in the WAR AGAINST WAR can ask is: “CUI BONO?” This is that core, critical question at the center of any criminal investigation or prosecution: “Who Benefits?”
CUI BONO 9/11? Who benefited and who benefits -- directly and indirectly --from the Terror Event of September 11? Who is better off now than they were on September 10, 2001 because of what happened on September 11? Which politicians? And whose agendas? Which federal agencies? Which industries? Which corporations? Which shareholders? Which taxpayers? Which foreign nations? And, on the other hand, which oppressed peoples? And, especially, which TERRORISTS?
EEI 9: The next most important Question is: When those who benefitted most from 9/11-1, and determine that they have even more to gain ~ politically, economically, and, above all, psychologically ~ from a second iteration, Who and/or What is going to stop them?
That depends entirely upon what You mean by “America,” doesn’t it Bill?
From at least one perspective, the US won Cold War I, thus beginning a 30-year reign of unbridled, unipolar, global hegemony.
It is important to remember that America's twenty year "Forever War" launched by 9/11 was, is, and ever will be a nothing but a halftime show designed to keep the troops occupied, the defense contractors profitable, and the American people comfortably numb to protracted conflicts in places many if not most of them cannot find on a map of the world.
For now, in 2024, Russia has recovered from the disintegration of European Communism and the USSR~ and China has recovered from the madness of Mao ~ sufficiently for either [or especially both] to present viable, credible "threats" to that reign.
For now Cold War II has kicked in, with Ukraine, Gaza, the South China Sea, and/or Taiwan set to push it to the next level.
And the same people, organizations, and institutions who benefitted so immensely from “The Forever War” are the same ones benefitting so immensely from Cold War II.
"HOW DID YOU LOSE THE WAR, DADDY? WHY DID YOU LOSE THE WAR ON FREEDOM?"
How and Why indeed, my Child.
The War On Freedom...it officially began on September 11, 2001...and we started losing it the very next day. How?
We lost it by expending all those precious and limited resources (time, energy, money, and, above all, life force) trying to stop or change or otherwise deal with SYMPTOMS: as in The Occupation of Iraq; as in The USA PATRIOT Act; as in The Ascendancy of The American Empire; as in the so-called “Global” so-called “War On” so-called “Terrorism” (at home and abroad); as in Regime Rotation among Bones and Skulls…
We lost it by wasting our lives trying to change the world by dealing with SYMPTOMS instead of the DISEASE, with EFFECTS instead of the CAUSE, with RESULTS instead of the ACTUATING FORCE....
We lost it by staying there. And so we continued CONTINUED to fail. We continued to accomplish absolutely NOTHING that we wished to achieve.
We were able to feel good about ourselves for TRYING, for being SEEN and HEARD, but we continued to fail to accomplish anything, to change anything, to make a real difference in the real world.
The War On Freedom...it officially began on September 11, 2001...and we started losing it on the very next day. Why?
Because the DISEASE, the CAUSE, the ACTUATING FORCE that we should have been devoting EVERY LAST BIT OF and ALL of our resources to was seeking out, finding, unearthing, exposing, and unleashing The Truth, The Real Truth, the Whole Truth, and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH About September 11, 2001: about WHAT Actually Happened, about HOW It Actually Happened, about WHY It Actually Happened, about WHO Actually Made It Happen, and above all, about Precisely WHO Let It Happen.
Because we did not do this, there were more Invasions and Occupations, and more USA PATRIOT Acts, and more rising of The American Empire, and more, more, more so-called Wars Against more, more, more so-called Enemies and Threats and Axes of Evil. At home and abroad.
ALL in the Name Of and Because Of and As Response To and Justified by September 11, 2001.
And thus, we became ACCOMPLICES.
Because if all the resources I named above that have been spent on anything BUT 9.11 TRUTH over the last years --(protesting Iraq, going to the Party Conventions, other rallies and marches and vigils and parades, all the books and movies and articles and poems and bullshit sessions and e-mail List dialogues, getting out the vote, etc and etc and etc -- had been spent on 9.11 TRUTH and ONLY on 9.11 TRUTH, all those people whom we professed to hate so much would have been in jail or executed, long, long ago.
We had a choice back then and continued to have it. At least until Terror Event 2. And then, all bets were off. Because, being an Accomplice did not protect us. Not after TE2, after 9.11 v2.
Because, because, because my child... September 11, 2001 was The End Of The World As We Knew It....
It was, indeed, the End of The World As We Knew It, but it is more, far more than that.
It was, in simple fact, a lie.
The Lie. The Biggest Lie. Ever.
Against the perpetrators and perpetuators of which there was but One Weapon.
Of course, one of the problems with finding the truth about 9/11/01 was the destruction of the evidence. The WTC site should have been considered a crime scene with full forensic investigation - but almost immediately the steel started getting shipped out to points unknown. The coverup was there from the start. Even today, there are many, many people who believe the official narrative.
This video restores our sight to the reality of what we all saw with our own eyes on 9/11, solid steel turned to dust in the air before hitting the ground.
Dr. Judy Wood, a professor at Clemson University with degrees in civil engineering, engineering mechanics, and materials engineering science, asked after the 9/11 catastrophe: How did two of the world's tallest buildings all but disappear, and faster than traditional physics can explain?
Over a half mile of vertical building height, containing nearly 150 football fields of floor space, was reduced to a near-level field of dust and debris, where rescue workers walked horizontally or rappelled into empty caverns to look for survivors. How was this possible given the standard laws of engineering and physics?
In December 1998, Former US Defence Secretary Ash Carter, US Undersecretary of Defence John Deutch and Philip Zelikow, Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission, colluded to write this in Foreign Affairs Journal,
A successful attack with weapons of mass destruction could certainly take thousands, or tens of thousands, of lives. If the device that exploded in 1993 under the World Trade Center had been nuclear, or had effectively dispersed a deadly pathogen, the resulting horror and chaos would have exceeded our ability to describe it.
Such an act of catastrophic terrorism would be a watershed event in American history. It could involve loss of life and property unprecedented in peacetime and undermine America’s fundamental sense of security, as did the Soviet atomic bomb test in 1949.
Like Pearl Harbor, this event would divide our past and future into a before and after. The United States might respond with draconian measures, scaling back civil liberties, allowing wider surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects, and use of deadly force. More violence could follow, either further terrorist attacks or U.S. counterattacks.
I find it curious it happened just like that 3 years later, and one of the Authors was able to control what information the 9/11 Commission was able to see?
Roger That, TomR. The "Official Conspiracy Theory" reigns supreme; even in the hearts and minds of Americans who haven't thought about 9/11 since 9/12, when the government and its media explained exactly What happened, Who did it, and Why [because "they hate our freedoms"].
That steel that was removed was and is The Key to understanding exactly How and Why WTC-1 and -2 fell that day. Let alone WTC-7, which was virtually untouched by the destructions of -1 and -2, and was brought down, we are told, "by office fires."
Thank You, Bill, for including the chart prepared by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor regarding the Human and Material Costs of America’s War in Gaza.
From the looks of it, all that is happening is a continuation of America’s so-called “Global” on so-called ‘War On” so-called “Terrorism,” aka “The Forever War” after 9/11.
For the details of the Human and Material Costs of that “War,” see Brown University’s Watson Institute For International and Public Affairs’ COSTS OF WAR Project at https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures.
And just remember that 95% of all that Money went into the pockets of the workers, supervisors, managers, executives, and shareholders of America’s MICC; with the remaining 5% going into the pockets of America’s Lackeys in the impacted Nations.
Overview:
U.S. BUDGETARY COSTS: $8 TRILLION
The vast economic impact of the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere is poorly understood by the U.S. public and policymakers. This paper estimates the budgetary costs of war, including past expenditures and future obligations to care for veterans of these wars.
HUMAN TOLL: 905,000 - 940,000 DIRECT DEATHS
The number of people killed directly in the violence of the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere are approximated here. Several times as many civilians have died due to the reverberating effects of these wars. The methods of accounting are described in this paper.
GEOGRAPHIC REACH: 78 COUNTRIES
From 2021 to 2023, the U.S. government undertook what it labeled “counterterrorism” activities in 78 countries, in an outgrowth of President George W. Bush's “Global War on Terror.” This map displays air/drone strikes, on-the-ground combat, “Section 127e” programs, military exercises, and operations to train and/or assist foreign forces.
HUMAN TOLL INCLUDING INDIRECT DEATHS: 4.5-4.7 MILLION
The number of people killed indirectly in post-9/11 war zones, including in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, are estimated at 3.6-3.8 million, though the precise figure remains unknown. This brings the estimated total of direct and indirect deaths to 4.5-4.7 million. The methods of accounting and various casual pathways leading to indirect deaths are described in this paper.
PEOPLE DISPLACED: 38 MILLION
38 million people have been displaced by the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and the Philippines.
The nation as a whole lost, as opposed to the ruling elites, because the underlying ideology of empire was never extinguished. The idea of US global domination was put on hold by the global scale of the Soviet Union (the price for stopping the rise of Germany as a hegemon), but once that dissolved it was game on again. So, after 1990 the US moved from the middle of Germany and enlarged NATO steadily eastward. It was as if prior to 1990 the US had Europe by the waist, and after 1990 it had Europe by the neck. Coupled with the encirclement of east Asia by the US navy, the US has encircled the Eurasian land mass, and Messianic Global Manifest Destiny seems within reach.
The problem of course is that Russia and China still stand in the way as regional hegemons in an increasingly multipolar world, and given US imperial overstretch will thwart the US goal. What is so dangerous is that the US thinks of its ideology as it did in the 19th. century. The reality is that the US is not up against an outgunned group of native Americans or Mexicans, but against powers that can also destroy the world, and just might if they view the US as an existential threat.
True victory for the US, and the world comes when the imperial ideology is snuffed out and replaced with one of being content to be a nation among nations, in a true multipolar world.
As Orwell might put it: What we have here is a Eurasia with its Putin, an Eastasia with its Xi, and an Oceania with a whole bunch of Big Brother Wanna-Bes.
What can the US government point to since 9/11 that has been supportive of human rights, of international law, of human progress? How has US foreign policy been positive? How has US government policy, foreign or domestic, been supportive of the American people?
One thing is certain. Since 9/11 big profits have been made. Any company or individual that contracts to the US armed forces has been doing fine. It is also true that Congress has served profit quite well as shown by the takeoff of the 1%.
Though the above is clear for anyone to see, nothing has been done about it. Regulatory agencies of the government have been neutered and this is to be expected since profit controls Congress, confirmed by the continual freeing of profit from restraint. Businesses forget about producing anything and instead pump up their stock with buybacks.
It all comes down to the political system of the US being rotten and the Constitution being just a piece of paper except when profit can employ it as is the case with the 2nd amendment. The 1st amendment is in the process of being proven empty with the Assange case.
To tie a ribbon on the rot, we're down to a contest between a war criminal and a narcissist obsessed with profit for the Presidency, with many people calling on the electorate to vote for one to protect against the other. May the best man win?!
Worst of all, community is on the ropes as people bury themselves in their stuff while fearing the stranger. All of the things I was taught as a youth in school have proven a mirage confirmed by our determination to undercut all that we are supposed to hold dear. Being all in for a genocide without apology shows we have reached the bottom of the barrel.
There is definitely an uproar, but it is unproductive blind rage that looks at immigrants or non-whites or at anything except the real basis of our malaise - the country has been bought by wealth and nobody is looking at the wealthy as being involved, let alone being held responsible to give back what has been stolen under the pretense of "the free market". The blindness is shown by a billionaire with no principles being the champion for change when he is the poster boy for the real problem.
And on the streets of America, as global warming is undeniably in progress due to decades of fossil fuel consumption, the response is a craze for big pickups and SUV's with large gasoline engines. One must ask, are we simply getting what we deserve?
A People get a Nation with the Government, Economy, and Civil Society that they deserve.
Sure seems like it.
Maybe another question is when did the US lose the Cold War. I'm open to the argument - made by some financial writers I read - that it was 1971 when Nixon to took the US off the gold standard to fund the war in Vietnam. Our current $34 trillion deficit and the uncontrolled growth of the firepower and spy industries grew out of a fiat currency and the ability to raise money without increasing taxes.
What about 1947 when the National Security Agency was created to counter the USSR? The USSR is long gone but the national security state takes on more layers all the time, with no cold war around.
The State/Defense Department relationship reminds me of the old joke about the man who went to see a doctor about a frog on the top of his head. When the doctor asked, "What can I do for you?", the frog answered, "Can you get this growth off my ass?"
If the National Security State actually paid for all the militarism and war making through taxes, the tax burden in the US would be sky high. But that would not go down so well, so intead the cost of militarism and war making is simply added to the debt. And then, very disingenously, the neoliberals and neocons use the high level of debt to gut all social programs--Social Security, Medicare, etc. Their dream is to completely eliminate all budgetary line items in the Federal budget except one--the National Security State apparatus.
Thank You, Bill, for including that quote from James Madison on the most dreaded enemy of Liberty: War.
Every candidate for every elected Federal office should be required to read that quote live on national television; and then explain whether of not they agree with it, and Why or Why Not. Starting with Biden and Trump.
They should also have to read Eisenhower's 1953 CROSS OF IRON speech and his 1961 Military-Industrial Complex speech.
Excerpt from the CROSS OF IRON SPEECH:
https://youtu.be/04P4zPzspuI?si=-A7D9l4aZizGqtKe
Excerpt from the MIC speech: https://youtu.be/Gg-jvHynP9Y?si=cKlSZiJq1oljMxYO
The response to Covid should not have happened if USA were a free nation.
A nation of law would not have suffered the 270 arson fueled riots of 2020.
A free and honest election would have been “called” by 1000 PM on Election Day 2020.
Features of a failed state
There are those who claim that The COVID Event was a Bioweapons Experiment and Test conducted by somebody for some specific purpose.
Whether it was that or it wasn't, it most definitely WAS and will ever be a very successful Psychological Warfare Experiment and Operation.
And i'm curious, Ed: Who would have been declared the winner at 10 pm on Election Nite 2020?
Trump.
I am remiss to not include the big city demonstration against Trump winning the 2016 election as evidence of our failed state.
Trump? On what basis do You say that?
And why were the demos in 2016 evidence of "our failed state"?
How do You categorize January 6?
Only the US can get away with gargantuan debt levels because the US dollar remains the world's reserve currency. So, they can just keep printing more dollars without limit or consequences. If that privileged status were to ever go away, the game is up. Hence, everything possible is done to maintain the current set-up. Meanwhile, the mother of all entitlement programs, the National Security State apparatus, always gets a blank check, with no serious oversight or accountability. The level of rot and corruption is off the charts.
Amazing how there's always money for more war ...
The spigot for weapons and war making is wide open, 24/7. After all, the objective is not to win wars; the objective is "forever war," to keep the funds flowing to the MIC and the political class who are whores for the MIC. It's a self-perpetuating scam.
Why is that "amazing," Bill?
Can You cite even one War in all of Human History that didn't happen because there wasn't "money" to pay for it?
Before nation-states emerged, Jeff, many wars ended when one side or the other ran out of money and couldn't pay the troops.
But my real point was that Americans are routinely told we don't have the money for higher wages, or health care, or infrastructure improvements, or even books and school lunches for our kids, yet there's always $60 billion for Ukraine, $17 billion for Israel, almost $900 billion for the Pentagon, etc. I think that is "amazing" how that idea is sold to us--and how so many people accept it.
i wasn't talking about wars ending because there was no more money to pay for it, Bill. i was talking about wars not getting started in the first place because there wasn't money to pay for it.
And Yes, it is amazing how effectively that idea of sufficient money for War is sold. But not at all really amazing that so many people accept it.
What else have they or their parents Ever known except that?
A massive peaceful protest against Netanyahu and the WAR in Tel Aviv last night and the police move in on horseback and water cannons.
https://youtu.be/jgV-WXD862o
All the antifa and blm mockery of law.
Ballot fraud in all the close calls.
The fraud should not have been “certified”. The truth demanded the election be sent to the House,
All accepted narrative on Trump and 6 Jan 2021 are gaslighting propaganda that make Goebbels proud
During his attempts to pressure Raffensperger into changing the election results, Trump said, "I just want to find 11,780 votes", the minimum number needed to overcome Biden's advantage in Georgia.
Hear him in his own words here: https://youtu.be/AbFc9T7KXA0
Permit me to recommend:
1 The most informative, insightful, and inspiring ~ and thus Important ~ movie i have watched in a long, Long time;
2. The most informative, insightful, and inspiring ~ and thus Important ~ book i have read in a long, Long time;
3. The best Music Video i have seen in a long, Long time.
~ 1. The movie is HOW TO START A REVOLUTION: A look at the life and work of Gene Sharp, this Planet’s premier Student, Teacher, Theoretician, Scholar, and Guide for Strategic Nonviolent Action and, as necessary, Strategic Nonviolent War. The film is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKnoUbDIpjo .
~ 2. The book is NONVIOLENT STRUGGLE: 50 CRUCIAL POINTS from CANVAS, the Centre for Applied NonViolent Action and Strategies. In a previous incarnation, CANVAS was OTPOR [Serbian for “RESISTANCE”], the Student Movement that led the overthrow of Yugoslavian Dictator Slobodan Milošević in October 2000. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otpor ] The book is available for PDF download at https://canvasopedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/50-Crucial-Points-web.pdf .
~ 3. The video is the best rendition of Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones’ “Gimmee Shelter” ever. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKNLIilyn7s .
Enjoy.
*** Just for the record, there are some non-Christian non-Nationalists who believe that Human Rights do NOT come from Government at all, as well. Or from God...: ***
GET A LOAD OF THESE INSANE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS WHO BELIEVED RIGHTS COME FROM GOD AND NOT THE GOVERNMENT BabylonBee / 23 Feb 23
You're not gonna believe this. Check out this list of radical Christian nationalists who believe inalienable human rights are endowed on them by some sort of higher power, a Creator, or something like that, and not by the federal government.
1. This idiot named JOHN LOCKE: This loser thought liberty came from the Law of Nature and wasn't subject to the "legislative authority of man." Whatever that means. Rights come from the government. EVERYONE knows that.
2. Total loser THOMAS JEFFERSON: Just look at the unhinged insanity in the eyes of this deranged radical.
3. This stupid thing called THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..." UHG. Who wrote this crap?
4. Some dummy named THOMAS PAINE: Paine claimed that every child born into the world must be considered as deriving its existence from God. Uh, yeah. Ok, weirdo.
5. Moron and inventor of lightning BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: This creep said that liberty is derived from the laws of God. Put this one on an FBI Watchlist…he's about to storm the Capitol.
These guys are all dummies. Do human rights come from God? Never. Rights come from the government and are disseminated to the population through the mainstream media. We need to stamp out this ridiculous scourge of Christian nationalism wherever we see it... before we lose our democracy.
Source: https://babylonbee.com/news/get-a-load-of-these-insane-christian-nationalists-who-believed-rights-come-from-god-and-not-the-government .
CONFRONTING THE EMPIRE: It’s Past Time…; Or, Essential Elements of Information For The WAR AGAINST WAR [Originally posted 05 Jan 07; Updated 24 Feb 24]
[NOTE: Essential Elements of Information ~ EEI~ are those critical items of information or intelligence required to plan and execute a military operation. This is a response to Justin Raimondo’s January 5, 2007 www.antiwar.com piece CONFRONTING THE EMPIRE: It’s Time… .]
“The time to have begun confronting this Empire after September 11, 2001, was September 12, 2001. For the sake of argument - and so as to retain at least the slightest glimmer of hope - let us assume that it is not too late….”
If the intent is not simply to confront the American Empire, but rather to effectively combat it so as to eventually conquer and defeat, and ultimately to destroy it, then what is required is a WAR AGAINST WAR. As a start point for developing a tactical and strategic foundation upon which to wage this WAR AGAINST WAR, consider the following Essential Elements of Information [EEI] at the beginning of the seventh year of the 21st century:
EEI 1: Any attempt to end the war in Iraq, or to prevent whatever other foreign and domestic outrages and abominations are planned ahead, that does not start with the PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY and its "new Pearl Harbor," the Terror Event of September 11, 2001, has failed and will continue to fail as at best, naively sophomoric, and at worst, willfully negligent.
Sophomoric because if 9/11 did not happen, this government and its media could not and would not have been able to convince the American people that war in Iraq [or Afghanistan] was necessary. It would have needed some other pretext and rationale, some other "new Pearl Harbor."
Negligent because anything and everything that the War Regime wants to do has been, will be, and can be explained, validated, and justified as an appropriate, necessary, legal, and moral response and reaction to 9/11. Anything and everything. It has been this way since September 12, 2001, and will continue to be so until 9/11 happens once again, until there is the Second Terror Event, the second “new Pearl Harbor.”
EEI 2: In any war -- but most particularly in this war, this so-called War Against so-called Terrorism -- the fundamental principle governing the distribution and flow of information and knowledge is very simple: "NEED TO KNOW." Individuals and organizations are given only the information and knowledge that they absolutely must have -- and only when they absolutely must have it -- in order to accomplish their task or satisfy their function in the accomplishment of the larger mission at hand.
In this "war," the American people have made it abundantly clear that they willingly, dutifully, and passively accept their government's dictate that they, the people, have no need whatsoever to know The Truth about The Terror Event of September 11, 2001: the Truth about WHAT actually happened; about HOW it actually happened; about WHY it actually happened; about WHO actually made it happen; and about who actually LET it happen.
Not only do the American people accept that they have no need to know The Truth about 9/11, they have also made it abundantly clear that they do not WANT to know The Truth about 9/11. For that Truth, they well suspect, may be "too terrible to bear." To take the harshest example, what would happen to the stock market [and everybody’s 401K, retirement fund, home value, etc etc etc,] if it were proven without any doubt [or even confessed] that senior officials of the U.S. government or its ruling elite had ordered, planned, facilitated, executed, and covered-up 9/11? And THEN what would happen?
One can almost see Jack Nicholson's character in A FEW GOOD MEN, the Marine General, standing at Ground Zero in New York City and bellowing: "The TRUTH?!?!? You can't HANDLE The Truth!!!"
EEI 3: The "success" of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 could have happened ONLY as the direct result of the biggest government failure in the history of this nation: the biggest immigration, civil, and criminal law enforcement failure; the biggest intelligence and anti-terrorism failure, the biggest airport security and highjacked aircraft protocol reaction and response failure; and the biggest national defense and homeland security failure. Ever.
As a direct result of these individual and organizational failures, this government thus completely failed its Constitutionally-mandated ultimate duty and responsibility to preserve and protect the life, liberty, and property of American citizens. As a direct result of these failures, three thousand people were dead, tens of thousands were injured, and private and public property worth tens of billions of dollars was lost, damaged, or destroyed.
EEI 4: To date, not one single U.S. government official -- not one elected politician, not one entrenched career civilian or military bureaucrat, not one anointed political appointee -- has been held accountable or been made responsible for his or her role in this greatest failure. Not one.
In fact, those individuals, agencies, departments, and organizations most directly culpable and complicit, whose failures on and before September 11, 2001 enabled 9/11 to be the "success" it was and is ~ the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, the Department of Defense, the White House and its National Security Council ~ have been rewarded with quantum jumps in increased political and legal power and authority, manpower, and, especially, money. And they all have a new Big Brother agency, the Department of Homeland Security.
PART 2
EEI 5: The Terror Event of September 11 is the most ambitious, audacious, effective, and thus successful psychological warfare operation in history.
It was conceived, planned, ordered, and executed with one specific intention: to create a "new Pearl Harbor," an "attack on America" that would shock and awe the American people and the so-called "civilized" world into:
a] eager endorsement of and willing participation in the grandest attempt at global political, economic, and military domination and control since Alexander The Great, Genghis Khan, and the creation of the European colonial empires in the 15th to early 20th centuries; and,
b] passive acceptance of and dutiful compliance with the biggest grab for government power on this planet since Stalin's Russia in the 20s, Hitler's Germany and Roosevelt's New Deal in the 30s, and Mao's China in the 40s.
In fact, 9/11 was a velvet-glove Coup d'Etat, the beginning of the end [if not the actual end] of traditional, Constitutionally-driven representative government in the United States and its systems of "checks and balances." 9/11 eliminated the legislative branch as an effectively functional element of the federal government. It also ended all pretense of a "loyal opposition" in national party politics, and the print and electronic media as a legitimate "honest broker."
In short, it was a complete success. Not since The Reichstag Fire in Berlin on the night of February 28, 1933 has there been such a success.
EEI 6: The total failure of the American peace, anti-war, and social justice movement to effectively deal with and thus have any impact whatsoever on the actions of the American government since 9/11 can be explained by a very simple question that was asked, over and over again way back in October, 2002, but which no one at any level of the American or international peace, anti-war, and social justice community deigned to even acknowledge, let alone answer:
“On what conceivable basis does anyone believe that the strategies and tactics, the philosophies and processes, the methods and techniques, the actions and events that were and are totally useless and helpless to prevent or then stop the so-called War Against so-called Terrorism, and that did not stop the American bombing of the former Yugoslavia, and that did not prevent the American invasion of the Persian Gulf [aka Gulf War I], and that has not ended the American-mandated Sanctions Against the People of Iraq, and that failed to terminate the American Rape of Central America in the 80s, and that, finally, did not bring about an end to the hostilities of the American War in Vietnam until North Vietnamese forces liberated Saigon…: On the basis of all that, on what conceivable basis does anyone believe that these same strategies and tactics, these same philosophies and processes, these same methods and techniques, these same actions and events will STOP THE PLANNED AMERICAN MILITARY AGGRESSION AGAINST IRAQ?!?”
EEI 7: This WAR AGAINST WAR cannot even be fought so long as those who would wage it insist upon fighting symptoms and not the disease. The symptoms are the so-called “Global” so-called “War On” so-called “Terrorism” and its various manifestations at home and abroad [Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, USA PATRIOT, record budget deficits, a new Draft, etc etc etc]. The disease is the Lie, the Hoax, the Sham, and the Scam that is The Terror Event of 9/11.
Unless and until a critical mass of the American people demand and get the truth about What actually happened on 9/11, about How and Why it actually happened, about Who actually made it happen, and about who actually Let it Happen, there is nothing that anyone, anywhere at any time will be able to do to stop the War Regime from doing anything that it wants to do, any time it wants to do it, anywhere it wants, at home or abroad.
EEI 8: The single most important Question any person who would consider enlisting in the WAR AGAINST WAR can ask is: “CUI BONO?” This is that core, critical question at the center of any criminal investigation or prosecution: “Who Benefits?”
CUI BONO 9/11? Who benefited and who benefits -- directly and indirectly --from the Terror Event of September 11? Who is better off now than they were on September 10, 2001 because of what happened on September 11? Which politicians? And whose agendas? Which federal agencies? Which industries? Which corporations? Which shareholders? Which taxpayers? Which foreign nations? And, on the other hand, which oppressed peoples? And, especially, which TERRORISTS?
EEI 9: The next most important Question is: When those who benefitted most from 9/11-1, and determine that they have even more to gain ~ politically, economically, and, above all, psychologically ~ from a second iteration, Who and/or What is going to stop them?
###
Did America lose the Cold War?
That depends entirely upon what You mean by “America,” doesn’t it Bill?
From at least one perspective, the US won Cold War I, thus beginning a 30-year reign of unbridled, unipolar, global hegemony.
It is important to remember that America's twenty year "Forever War" launched by 9/11 was, is, and ever will be a nothing but a halftime show designed to keep the troops occupied, the defense contractors profitable, and the American people comfortably numb to protracted conflicts in places many if not most of them cannot find on a map of the world.
For now, in 2024, Russia has recovered from the disintegration of European Communism and the USSR~ and China has recovered from the madness of Mao ~ sufficiently for either [or especially both] to present viable, credible "threats" to that reign.
For now Cold War II has kicked in, with Ukraine, Gaza, the South China Sea, and/or Taiwan set to push it to the next level.
And the same people, organizations, and institutions who benefitted so immensely from “The Forever War” are the same ones benefitting so immensely from Cold War II.
"HOW DID YOU LOSE THE WAR, DADDY? WHY DID YOU LOSE THE WAR ON FREEDOM?"
How and Why indeed, my Child.
The War On Freedom...it officially began on September 11, 2001...and we started losing it the very next day. How?
We lost it by expending all those precious and limited resources (time, energy, money, and, above all, life force) trying to stop or change or otherwise deal with SYMPTOMS: as in The Occupation of Iraq; as in The USA PATRIOT Act; as in The Ascendancy of The American Empire; as in the so-called “Global” so-called “War On” so-called “Terrorism” (at home and abroad); as in Regime Rotation among Bones and Skulls…
We lost it by wasting our lives trying to change the world by dealing with SYMPTOMS instead of the DISEASE, with EFFECTS instead of the CAUSE, with RESULTS instead of the ACTUATING FORCE....
We lost it by staying there. And so we continued CONTINUED to fail. We continued to accomplish absolutely NOTHING that we wished to achieve.
We were able to feel good about ourselves for TRYING, for being SEEN and HEARD, but we continued to fail to accomplish anything, to change anything, to make a real difference in the real world.
The War On Freedom...it officially began on September 11, 2001...and we started losing it on the very next day. Why?
Because the DISEASE, the CAUSE, the ACTUATING FORCE that we should have been devoting EVERY LAST BIT OF and ALL of our resources to was seeking out, finding, unearthing, exposing, and unleashing The Truth, The Real Truth, the Whole Truth, and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH About September 11, 2001: about WHAT Actually Happened, about HOW It Actually Happened, about WHY It Actually Happened, about WHO Actually Made It Happen, and above all, about Precisely WHO Let It Happen.
Because we did not do this, there were more Invasions and Occupations, and more USA PATRIOT Acts, and more rising of The American Empire, and more, more, more so-called Wars Against more, more, more so-called Enemies and Threats and Axes of Evil. At home and abroad.
ALL in the Name Of and Because Of and As Response To and Justified by September 11, 2001.
And thus, we became ACCOMPLICES.
Because if all the resources I named above that have been spent on anything BUT 9.11 TRUTH over the last years --(protesting Iraq, going to the Party Conventions, other rallies and marches and vigils and parades, all the books and movies and articles and poems and bullshit sessions and e-mail List dialogues, getting out the vote, etc and etc and etc -- had been spent on 9.11 TRUTH and ONLY on 9.11 TRUTH, all those people whom we professed to hate so much would have been in jail or executed, long, long ago.
We had a choice back then and continued to have it. At least until Terror Event 2. And then, all bets were off. Because, being an Accomplice did not protect us. Not after TE2, after 9.11 v2.
Because, because, because my child... September 11, 2001 was The End Of The World As We Knew It....
It was, indeed, the End of The World As We Knew It, but it is more, far more than that.
It was, in simple fact, a lie.
The Lie. The Biggest Lie. Ever.
Against the perpetrators and perpetuators of which there was but One Weapon.
It was that simple. It just wasn't easy.
05 NOV 04
Of course, one of the problems with finding the truth about 9/11/01 was the destruction of the evidence. The WTC site should have been considered a crime scene with full forensic investigation - but almost immediately the steel started getting shipped out to points unknown. The coverup was there from the start. Even today, there are many, many people who believe the official narrative.
This video restores our sight to the reality of what we all saw with our own eyes on 9/11, solid steel turned to dust in the air before hitting the ground.
Dr. Judy Wood, a professor at Clemson University with degrees in civil engineering, engineering mechanics, and materials engineering science, asked after the 9/11 catastrophe: How did two of the world's tallest buildings all but disappear, and faster than traditional physics can explain?
Over a half mile of vertical building height, containing nearly 150 football fields of floor space, was reduced to a near-level field of dust and debris, where rescue workers walked horizontally or rappelled into empty caverns to look for survivors. How was this possible given the standard laws of engineering and physics?
https://youtu.be/vlkZLlzOfVQ
In December 1998, Former US Defence Secretary Ash Carter, US Undersecretary of Defence John Deutch and Philip Zelikow, Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission, colluded to write this in Foreign Affairs Journal,
A successful attack with weapons of mass destruction could certainly take thousands, or tens of thousands, of lives. If the device that exploded in 1993 under the World Trade Center had been nuclear, or had effectively dispersed a deadly pathogen, the resulting horror and chaos would have exceeded our ability to describe it.
Such an act of catastrophic terrorism would be a watershed event in American history. It could involve loss of life and property unprecedented in peacetime and undermine America’s fundamental sense of security, as did the Soviet atomic bomb test in 1949.
Like Pearl Harbor, this event would divide our past and future into a before and after. The United States might respond with draconian measures, scaling back civil liberties, allowing wider surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects, and use of deadly force. More violence could follow, either further terrorist attacks or U.S. counterattacks.
I find it curious it happened just like that 3 years later, and one of the Authors was able to control what information the 9/11 Commission was able to see?
The information above comes from my Blog article:
https://rayjc.com/2011/08/28/the-revelation-of-jesus-christ-from-1911-to-911/
Thanks Ray.
Roger That, TomR. The "Official Conspiracy Theory" reigns supreme; even in the hearts and minds of Americans who haven't thought about 9/11 since 9/12, when the government and its media explained exactly What happened, Who did it, and Why [because "they hate our freedoms"].
That steel that was removed was and is The Key to understanding exactly How and Why WTC-1 and -2 fell that day. Let alone WTC-7, which was virtually untouched by the destructions of -1 and -2, and was brought down, we are told, "by office fires."
Thank You, Bill, for including the chart prepared by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor regarding the Human and Material Costs of America’s War in Gaza.
From the looks of it, all that is happening is a continuation of America’s so-called “Global” on so-called ‘War On” so-called “Terrorism,” aka “The Forever War” after 9/11.
For the details of the Human and Material Costs of that “War,” see Brown University’s Watson Institute For International and Public Affairs’ COSTS OF WAR Project at https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures.
And just remember that 95% of all that Money went into the pockets of the workers, supervisors, managers, executives, and shareholders of America’s MICC; with the remaining 5% going into the pockets of America’s Lackeys in the impacted Nations.
Overview:
U.S. BUDGETARY COSTS: $8 TRILLION
The vast economic impact of the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere is poorly understood by the U.S. public and policymakers. This paper estimates the budgetary costs of war, including past expenditures and future obligations to care for veterans of these wars.
HUMAN TOLL: 905,000 - 940,000 DIRECT DEATHS
The number of people killed directly in the violence of the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere are approximated here. Several times as many civilians have died due to the reverberating effects of these wars. The methods of accounting are described in this paper.
GEOGRAPHIC REACH: 78 COUNTRIES
From 2021 to 2023, the U.S. government undertook what it labeled “counterterrorism” activities in 78 countries, in an outgrowth of President George W. Bush's “Global War on Terror.” This map displays air/drone strikes, on-the-ground combat, “Section 127e” programs, military exercises, and operations to train and/or assist foreign forces.
HUMAN TOLL INCLUDING INDIRECT DEATHS: 4.5-4.7 MILLION
The number of people killed indirectly in post-9/11 war zones, including in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, are estimated at 3.6-3.8 million, though the precise figure remains unknown. This brings the estimated total of direct and indirect deaths to 4.5-4.7 million. The methods of accounting and various casual pathways leading to indirect deaths are described in this paper.
PEOPLE DISPLACED: 38 MILLION
38 million people have been displaced by the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and the Philippines.
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