Who Are The Terrorists?

Governments have traditionally used fear of an enemy to assure citizen support, compliance and cooperation as the government engaged in political and warring actions for its own ends. "Us" against "them" is a tried and true tactic, even on the field of sports.

How many of you are old enough to remember the Red Menace, when Communism was the bug-a-bear of the day? McCarthy reigned supreme and destroyed countless numbers of American lives by tarring them with the Commie brush. The giant Russian Bear was pictured as hovering over the free world with bared fangs and claws, ready to dominate and force all free and peace loving people to submit to their ideology. Nuclear War was held over our heads as the major catastrophe looming to destroy us.

Fear of Communism was the favored terror tactic employed for many years. The Cuban Crisis whipped the populace into a frenzy of shelter building and stockpiling of food stuffs and supplies. Grocery shelves were emptied and a product called Multi-Purpose Food (MPF) was touted as a space saving, nutritious alternative to mountains of canned goods. It tasted AWFUL and one would have to be literally starving to eat it, if even then. Some people avowed that starvation was preferable to eating that stuff. Evacuation plans for cities were laid out, and those workers in essential services were advised to arrange for the care of their families, as in the event of an attack they would not be allowed to leave their jobs.

The Screaming Eagle forced the Red Bear to back down and remove its missles from Cuba, so that terror was somewhat abated. But the dirty Commies remained an effective bug-a-bear, they just changed colors. Then war was necessary to stop the Yellow Horde from advancing southward into Korea; later it was Vietnam. The Commies could not be allowed to prevail or the whole world would be at risk to fall to Communism!! Now, over 50 years later, we continue to maintain a holding force at the 38th parallel in Korea, and everyone knows what happened in the 'Nam. We didn't get nuked, the bear's fangs and claws were blunted, the Vietnamese Communists didn't threaten the free world (and now we build trade with them) and the Commie terror threat faded into obscurity.

A new terror threat was necessary. Contrary to popular belief, the invasion of Iraq and the Middle east didn't pop up suddenly as a result of 9/11; it was planned for several years prior to that catastrophe. 9/11 merely provided the excuse, and we were threatened with Islamic terrorists as the current bug-a-bear. Deceived into supporting the Neocons plots and enraged at the attack on our people, the citizens obliging fell into line with the government. Now that the truth is out, the government is forced to provide a new terror threat: Iran and Syria, the next targets on the Neocon agenda. Once again, WMDs, nuclear attack, backback/suitcase mini-nukes, obliterate Israel, and so on. The radical Islamists obliging add fuel to the flame by attacks here and there about the globe.

Terror, terror, terror. Keep the citizens fearful, force them to turn to our leaders to protect us. And if some obliging terrorist group hits us again, it will be an answer to neocon prayers, justifying their wars. Bush will be vindicated and the plots to control the world's oil can proceed without citizen objections.

Now that the "surge" has been announced, the TV further obliges the government by airing anti-Saddam documentaries, pro-mercenary docs, and heroic war docs and movies. (BlackHawk Down is airing again, too).
Saddam exercised extreme cruelty against his people to keep them terrorized into line. He ruined the nation's economy with the Iran-Iraq 8 year war, instigated and armed to a large extent by the U.S. and European collaborators. He is condemned for torture and death of his people, for lawless arrests and executions, for unsupported accusations of wrong doing and unlawful incarcerations. He was a monster, like many other tyrants supported by the U.S. until they were no longer useful to Neocon plans.

Bush has promoted detention and torture of individuals, including some U.S. citizens, often with unsupported or no accusations. Are his hands clean of the blood that was on Saddam's hands because he has most of his victims rendered to cooperative nations who will do the torture for him, or tortured out of the U.S. national boundries? Bush has violated, even done away with the law of habeas corpus, shredded the Constitution (" a g-d piece of paper") , and has ruined this nation financially; well in the black at the end of the Clinton administration but now trillions of dollars in debt, much of the debt to Communist China. If our nation survives Bush, our great-great grandchildren will still be paying off the debt.

For every accusation Bush levels against other nations, I see the same crimes at his doorstep. Who has the greatest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world? Who provides Israel with her nukes and high tech weaponry, some of which are horrific in the extreme? Who spends more on its military than all other nations in the world combined? Who is the greatest threat to world peace? Who has violated the Geneva Convention and even denies he is bound to it? On and on, a veritable litany of accusations to be laid at his feet. Every accusation that he has leveled at others bounce back and accuse him of equal or more guilt.

If there is any justice in this life, there will be a new Nuremberg Trials and you know who should be first on the docket .