Adbusters: Lest We Forget - the Speech That Never Was

Monday, December 10, 2001 11:11 - Gandhara Op-Ed

Adbusters implies that, by declaring war against terrorism, America confirmed being a victim to terrorism. Rather than being inspired to promote peace, the GW Bush government chose instead the forever war that has been the legacy of terrorism.

Yet the State now sees its country and the world through the myopic lens of a post-911 future where fear of terrorism has led to racial profiling, illegal body searches and x-ray technology that violates privacy.

Here is a part of the Adbuster article:

What Could Have Been: The speech that was never made, lest we forget

Fellow Americans, citizens of the world: Tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or justice to our enemies, justice will be done.

We cannot see inside the head of a terrorist, and yet today we understand clearly what it is he demands. A terrorist demands hate. He demands fear. Above all else, a terrorist demands war.

But a free people does not bend to the demands of terror.

Our friends and family members have died in the thousands, their bright lights of life made suddenly, brutally dark. To the world tonight I say that not one more innocent person will die in the name of this terrorist act. Not one more mother's son in America. Not one more beloved father in Afghanistan. Not one more infant child in Israel or in Palestine.

To the men and women in uniform I say: We all must hope that your soldiering days are done. Today you are our officers of law and our keepers of precious peace. You have been challenged by a terrible crime and make no mistake, this nation's hunger for justice is as strong as its love of peace. We look to you, to our police forces and our troops, to the elected representatives of our citizens, and to our friends and allies in the international community, to bring the full weight of law and of human dignity against the wrongdoers and criminals.

America is ever prepared to act, and to act alone if we must...

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Original post: December 10, 2001 11:11H
Previous update: January 31, 2009 1857
Update posted: March 8, 2013 1355H

Adbusters: What Could Have Been: http://web.archive.org/web/20020206005225/http://adbusters.org/magazine/39/whatcould.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20020206005225/http://adbusters.org/magazine/39/whatcould.html

CIA + Big Business = The Overclass

The wealthy have always used many methods to accumulate wealth, but it was not until the mid-1970s that these methods coalesced into a superbly organized, cohesive and efficient machine. After 1975, it became greater than the sum of its parts, a smooth flowing organization of advocacy groups, lobbyists, think tanks, conservative foundations, and PR firms that hurtled the richest 1 percent into the stratosphere.

The origins of this machine, interestingly enough, can be traced back to the CIA. This is not to say the machine is a formal CIA operation, complete with code name and signed documents. (Although such evidence may yet surface — and previously unthinkable domestic operations such as MK-ULTRA, CHAOS and MOCKINGBIRD show this to be a distinct possibility.) But what we do know already indicts the CIA strongly enough. Its principle creators were Irving Kristol, Paul Weyrich, William Simon, Richard Mellon Scaife, Frank Shakespeare, William F. Buckley, Jr., the Rockefeller family, and more. Almost all the machine's creators had CIA backgrounds.

During the 1970s, these men would take the propaganda and operational techniques they had learned in the Cold War and apply them to the Class War. Therefore it is no surprise that the American version of the machine bears an uncanny resemblance to the foreign versions designed to fight communism. The CIA's expert and comprehensive organization of the business class would succeed beyond their wildest dreams. In 1975, the richest 1 percent owned 22 percent of America’s wealth. By 1992, they would nearly double that, to 42 percent — the highest level of inequality in the 20th century. — The Origins of the Overclass

Hence the worsening problems in Bangladesh, Thailand, Nepal, the Philippines, and the Middle East.

This is in addition to the "War on Terrorism" backlash in the wake of 9-11 with NATO troops in Afghanistan and in Iraq, which erupted with civil war in 2004 after the US- and UK-led invasion of 2003.

As well, the Occupy Wall Street movement and other movements which sprang up all over the world are a response to the super-rich and its control of corporations and governments.

Though we are loathe to believe the super-rich are controlling the masses, the truth is the masses are exposed to advertising and other forms of corporate marketing. News media today (newspapers, radio and TV in addition to the Internet) broadcast advertisements to sell product to consumers.

The masses == consumers

As long as the masses buy product, the super-rich make money, whether as business owners, CEOs, and/or owners of stock market shares.

As of October 2011, America's top 1% own 40% of the wealth. Compared to the quote above, the prediction about them owning 42% in 1992 was optimistic.

It turns out that the best ally for the super-rich and the corporations they own stocks in is the CIA, which supported Big Business interests.

However, this is hardly news. Consumer society is more interested in product, and the politics that are hard to sell involve war.

This is why the latest scandal involving the CIA is about a retired General and a military intelligence officer who wrote fan fictions about her hero.

For sex sells.

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Updated: 20121114 2030