9/11 isn’t “over,” Mr. Friedman
By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Associate Editor
Oct 4, 2007, 01:21
9/11 Is Over by New York Times’ columnist Thomas Friedman is as ignorant if not as pernicious as its misguided view of 9/11’s tragedy. It is symptomatic of the worse elements at the Times, those writers who waffle between administration ass-kissing and stands for faux boldness like the above one, which is in effect from the mouth of a tinfoil hat, if not a voice of the CIA.
Friedman begins by quoting a send-up news story run by The Onion: “At a well-attended rally in front of his new ground zero headquarters Monday, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani officially announced his plan to run for president of 9/11. ‘My fellow citizens of 9/11, today I will make you a promise,’ said Giuliani during his 18-minute announcement speech in front of a charred and torn American flag. ‘As president of 9/11, I will usher in a bold new 9/11 for all.’ If elected, Giuliani would inherit the duties of current 9/11 President George W. Bush, including making grim facial expressions, seeing the world’s conflicts in terms of good and evil, and carrying a bullhorn at all state functions.”
Friedman continues, “Like all good satire, the story made me both laugh and cry, because it reflected something so true -- how much, since 9/11, we’ve become ‘The United States of Fighting Terrorism.’ Times columnists are not allowed to endorse candidates, but there’s no rule against saying who will not get my vote: I will not vote for any candidate running on 9/11. We don’t need another president of 9/11. We need a president for 9/12. I will only vote for the 9/12 candidate.” He sums it and himself up . . .
“What does that mean? This: 9/11 has made us stupid. I honor, and weep for, all those murdered on that day. But our reaction to 9/11 — mine included — has knocked America completely out of balance, and it is time to get things right again.”
9/11 has made Friedman Stupid
First of all, what’s important about Giuliani aside from his grim facial expressions is his grim record, making himself a millionaire by capitalizing on being the hero of 9/11, even though he’s been disowned by the International Union of Firefighters, first responders, and all those sick and dying from being pushed to clear the crime scene in eight months not the allotted 30 months. See my article, How low does Rudy go.
Secondly, we have become “The United States of Fighting Terrorism” thanks to the specific inciting incident of 9/11, which was sponsored by the government to accomplish the neocon mission of world hegemony, starting with attacking the oil-rich Middle East and the Muslim world.Take a minute or two and consider that, Mr. Friedman. It’s kind of like “The New Pearl Harbor --Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11,” the landmark book by theologian and scholar David Ray Griffin. I suggest, Mr. Friedman, that you read it, along with historian Webster Tarpley’s “9/11 Synthetic Terror -- Made in USA.”
But it seems as if Friedman is either colossally naive or a non-reader. 9/11 isn't over because its true perpetrators have not been revealed in the corporate media of America.
Friedman goes on to say, “It is not that I thought we had new enemies that day and now I don’t. Yes, in the wake of 9/11, we need new precautions, new barriers. But we also need our old habits and sense of openness. For me, the candidate of 9/12 is the one who will not only understand who our enemies are, but who we are.”
To that I answer, 9/12 can only become a clean slate for life in America and around the world when the haunting basic questions and anomalies of 9/11 are answered, as they are being done, here and now. Yet Friedman persists in his misdirected if not put-on naiveté . . .
“Before 9/11, the world thought America’s slogan was: ‘Where anything is possible for anybody.’ But that is not our global brand anymore. Our government has been exporting fear, not hope: “Give me your tired, your poor and your fingerprints.”
Yes, and get rid of our government that has been creating that faux enemy which is designed to protect the culpability of the real perpetrators, themselves. Why else, Mr. Friedman, why else?
But Stupid continues
“You may think Guantanamo Bay is a prison camp in Cuba for Al Qaeda terrorists. A lot of the world thinks it’s a place we send visitors who don’t give the right answers at immigration. I will not vote for any candidate who is not committed to dismantling Guantanamo Bay and replacing it with a free field hospital for poor Cubans. Guantanamo Bay is the anti-Statue of Liberty.”
Well hoopla, Thomas, what a patriot you are. But Guantanamo is part of the USAPATRIOT ACT, which is designed to subvert the freedoms of our Constitution and the rules of the Geneva Convention. It creates a police state, in which the government can spy on us, arrest us at will, or thinks we represent “a credible threat.” You can also have all your physical assets taken from you under the same provision. Where you have you been, Mr. Friedman? Guantanamo Bay is the signature of the fascist state.
What’s more, “Al Qaeda” was bought and paid for by the CIA, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to fight the “atheistic Russians” when they were drawn into invading Afghanistan in 1979. Osama bin Laden was recruited along with other leaders and strays to fight the Russians and were fully supported by US dollars, arms, and training personnel. “Al Qaeda” or the base was the title of a file on bin Laden’s laptop, which detailed worthy colleagues he met in his 10 years of fighting. “Al Qaeda,” bin Laden and the “hijackers” are the classic patsies for the false flag operation that the US government used to suck us into an all-out war, the War on Terror. Back to you now . . .
“Roger Dow, president of the Travel Industry Association, told me that the United States has lost millions of overseas visitors since 9/11 — even though the dollar is weak and America is on sale. ‘Only the U.S. is losing traveler volume among major countries, which is unheard of in today’s world,’ Mr. Dow said.” Yes, go on . . .
“Total business arrivals to the United States fell by 10 percent over the 2004-5 period alone, while the number of business visitors to Europe grew by 8 percent in that time. The travel industry’s recent Discover America Partnership study concluded that ‘the U.S. entry process has created a climate of fear and frustration that is turning away foreign business and leisure travelers and hurting America’s image abroad.’ Those who don’t visit us, don’t know us.”
These are half-truths consciously set forth. The US economic problems are not about tourism. They’re about reversing the tax structure from progressive to regressive, from providing huge tax cuts for the rich, while spending $1.3 trillion dollars on two wars, as reported by your own paper, Mr. Friedman. The article was “What You Can Do With $1.3 Trillion." Your buddy Bush is bankrupting us.
In addition, rampant speculation in the stock market, a lack of genuine collateral, and the persistent creation of economic bubbles to puff up the market and corporate returns, is also responsible for our fading dollar and drowning ship of state. Tell that to Roger Dow and yourself.
Some closing words from Stupid
“I’d love to see us salvage something decent in Iraq that might help tilt the Middle East onto a more progressive pathway. That was and is necessary to improve our security. But sometimes the necessary is impossible -- and we just can’t keep chasing that rainbow this way.”
I’d love to see the Easter Bunny create world peace by Tuesday and stop the US from getting drunk on relatively cheap Middle Eastern oil. And I’d love for you to take a look at your prose: “But sometimes the necessary is impossible -- and we just can’t keep chasing the rainbow this way.” What the hell does that mean? Get out of Iraq because it’s another Vietnam, and we’re losing our shirts as well as our manpower and reputation in the world. Say it, man. Don’t finesse it. And look at this leap in logic, from the “rainbow” to our infrastructure.
“Look at our infrastructure. It’s not just the bridge that fell in my hometown, Minneapolis. Fly from Zurich’s ultramodern airport to La Guardia’s dump. It is like flying from the Jetsons to the Flintstones. I still can’t get uninterrupted cellphone service between my home in Bethesda and my office in D.C. But I recently bought a pocket cellphone at the Beijing airport and immediately called my wife in Bethesda -- crystal clear.”
If your boy Bush wasn’t hemorrhaging our assets, bridges wouldn’t be falling down in your hometown, Minneapolis, or anywhere. And LaGuardia wouldn’t look like a dump to you. It would look pristine, like Zurich’s ultramodern airport, so you wouldn’t feel like the cartoon Jetson you are or the Flintstone you should be with such a shoddy knowledge or world affairs and such an absence of consciousness. What’s more, if you like Chinese products so much, how about a Chinese toothpaste with coolant in it? It will brighten that smile in your head shot. But here comes the stupid wrap up . . .
“I just attended the China clean car conference, where Chinese automakers were boasting that their 2008 cars will meet “Euro 4” -- European Union -- emissions standards. We used to be the gold standard. We aren’t anymore. Last July, Microsoft, fed up with American restrictions on importing brain talent, opened its newest software development center in Vancouver. That’s in Canada, folks. If Disney World can remain an open, welcoming place, with increased but invisible security, why can’t America?”
Ralph Nader’s Unsafe At Any Speed wasn’t about the US being the standard of the auto business. But thanks to non-journalists like you, Thomas Friedman, who don’t know their ass from their elbow, and if they knew the truth would be to afraid to tell it, we’ve ended up in our present conundrum. After all, career comes first, then comes the truth, right? And also how does a dodo like you end up on The New York Times Op-Ed page unless he has friends in high places that enjoy his lies and guarantee his stupid success?
You capped it with: “We can’t afford to keep being this stupid! We have got to get our groove back. We need a president who will unite us around a common purpose, not a common enemy. Al Qaeda is about 9/11. We are about 9/12, we are about the Fourth of July -- which is why I hope that anyone who runs on the 9/11 platform gets trounced.”
Baby, I never lost my groove. I didn’t vote for Bush. I didn’t support his phony war. I never bought 9/11 as anything but an inside job, like millions of other smart people. I don’t plan on becoming a narcoleptic like you. And Al Qaeda is the CIA. Plus we won’t be about 9/12 or any of your paid for daydreams, including the Fourth of July, until we get rid of all the scurvy characters like you in the media, and those Elites behind them pulling the puppet strings.
And that’s why you won’t vote for anyone who runs on the 9/11 platform and want to see him/her trounced. Because you’re an asset, as in ASS-et, a stupid asset of a corrupt system, bought and paid for like the mujihadeen of Zbigniew Brezinski, Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor, who came up with the bright idea of a holy Muslim jihad in the first place, as well as the concept of a “Pearl Harbor-like incident” to pull the US into war.
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer living in New York City. Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.