The task for this generation, though, is to end the war in Iraq. 9/11 was George Bush’s Reichstag fire. It gave him a cover for his planned invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. It was his excuse to flout international law and revoke important civil liberties in the US. It has enabled him to wrap himself in the flag and evoke a mindless brand of patriotism.
There may have been some excuse for American anger and aggression in Afghanistan - and the Taliban were fuckers anyway. But the invasion of Iraq has done nothing to improve the national security of the US; indeed, it increased the national insecurity. Clearly, as Mubarak of Egypt said, US military action is creating a generation with a hundred Bin Ladens. As demonstrated in recent prison photos, the whole war is nothing but an Oedipal exercise in the psycho-sexual pathology of governance.
Even if everything that was said about Iraq were true, there was still no need to invade. , Except for chemical warfare, Israel has done everything that Iraq has been accused of. Israel does possess very definite WMD’s and they have launched a real military attack on US forces. But there have never been any calls for the invasion of Israel.
On some level, everyone knew there were no WMDs, that the President was lying all along. Certainly the rest of the world knew this; with good reason: United Nations inspectors failed to discover any. And, as I said, American are not stupid. Supporters of the war were shamefaced, subdued in their defense. They sank into the war with a kind of masochistic languor, rejoicing in the opportunity to allow the President to make their decisions for them.
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