Well, There Will Always Be 9/11

In the run up to the election campaign America is bracing itself for an uncertain outcome of the presidential elections for the coming year. At this juncture it is pertinent to ask oneself why?

The Republicans have been so focused on events abroad that they have neglected domestic affairs, perhaps this is something from which the Democrats can capitalise on. George Bush Jnr. has that rare talent in being able to link just about everything to 9/11.

Whilst addressing Union Members on Labor Day, about jobs and the state of the economy, he remarked:

"I want you to think back to that fateful day, September the 11th, and what happened afterwards." –” Washington Post.

When asked about his $170 million budget for his primary campaign he riposted with:

"Every day, I’m reminded about what 9/11 means to America," –” Washington Post.

His non-sequiturs notwithstanding we gleam an insight into what kind of a man (and administration) this is. A man who has been able to make his claim to the throne of America via this event (since he wasn’t ‘voted’ into office) all the more legitimate. Christopher Aterton, Dean of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, said:

"It was the event that really made George W. Bush president, the wellspring of his legitimacy," –” Washington Post.

So it is only logical that they should gain as much from this as possible. Also many other members of the Bush administration have been able to link 9/11 to just about everything. It has become the fulcrum around which the policies (primarily foreign policy) pivot.

Donald Rumsfeld said:

"The fight for freedom continues," Rumsfeld said. "Because we know if we do not fight the terrorists over there in Iraq, in Afghanistan and across the world, then we will have to face them here, and many more men, women and children will perish and the patriots defending them." –” Agence France-Presse

Superbly making the link between two wholly unconnected countries in the world through the vague and easily manipulative charge of terrorism. Only a few months ago Colin Powell was before the United Nations general assembly trying to peddle off shoddy intelligence as being the proof that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction, now all of a sudden Saddam is gone his two sons killed (along with two Shia Scholars and countless other Iraqi civilians) and the recurring theme of this administration has taken hold again.

Condoleezza Rice said:

“We’ve heard that argument before, and we, more than any, as a people, should be ready to reject it,” Rice told about 1,200 people at the National Association of Black Journalists convention. “The view was wrong in 1963 in Birmingham, and it is wrong in 2003 in Baghdad and in the rest of the Middle East.” –” Daily Telegraph.

Linking the struggle of African-Americans with the plight of the Iraqi’s whose nation’s administration had earlier on been (or tried to be) linked to terrorism.

As for the democrats who try and inject some sanity into the debate they are shouted down as being unpatriotic and senseless. 9/11 is something that they have not been able to use to their advantage –” yet. The election of the new administration in Washington will be through manipulating the emotions of the people by the Democrats saying that the Republicans didn’t do enough, or had done the wrong thing (i.e. War on Iraq) and the Republicans will say that the Democrats couldn’t have done anything since they are unpatriotic and divided, but that the Bush administration had made the world a safer place, whilst simultaneously adding to the quagmire that is their deceitful foreign policy by contradicting themselves and saying that the War On Terror must continue and that they are the right people to be in place at the helm of this barge of the damned.

As for the rest of us the facts of 9/11 will not be disclosed to the public whilst it still is gripped in the trauma (and more importantly whilst the administration has an objective to achieve in the Muslim World) of 9/11. The words of Michael Meecher, former secretary for the environment for the current UK Labour government, will be cast into the same place as the writings of Ezra Pound and conspiracy theorists. He will be marginalized and the truth (of a sort) will appear when the face of the planet has been changed to reflect America. Until then everything that can be advantageous to the Bush administration, anything that will heighten the fear and anxiety of the American populace, anything that will allow ill-thought-out projects (like the American Dream for the 21st Century) to go ahead will be done through this background of 9/11.

The standard mantra until then will be “We should not forget 9/11”.