Sep 10, 2021
On this episode of The Resistance Library Podcast, Sam and Dave
discuss the 9/11 attacks, Al-Qaeda, and the domestic fall-out from
America’s secret war. With American military personnel now entering
service who were not even alive on 9/11, this seems an appropriate
time to reexamine the events of September 11, 2001 – the opaque
motives for the attacks, the equally opaque motives for the
counter-offensive by the United States and its allies known as the
Global War on Terror, and the domestic fall-out for Americans
concerned about the erosion of their civil liberties on the
homefront.
Before venturing further, it’s worth noting that our appraisal is
not among the most common explanations. Osama bin Laden, his
lieutenants at Al-Qaeda, and the men who carried out the attack
against the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon are not
“crazy,”
unhinged psychopaths launching an attack against the United States
without what they consider to be good reason.
Nor do we consider then-President George W. Bush to be either a
simpleton, a willing conspirator, an oil profiteer, or a
Machivellian puppet whose cabinet were all too happy to take
advantage of a crisis.
The American press tends to portray its leaders as fools and
knaves, and America’s enemies as psychopathic. Because the
propaganda machine hammered away so heavily on the simple
“cowardly
men who hate our freedom” line, there was not much in the way of
careful consideration of the actual political motives of the
hijackers, the Petro-Islam that funded them, the ancient,
antagonistic split between Sunni and Shi’a, the fall-out from the
1979 Iranian revolution or the 1970s energy crisis, the historical
context of covert American involvement in the Soviet-Afghan War and
the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, nor the perceived
“imperialist
humanitarianism” of American military adventures of the 1990s in
Muslim nations like Bosnia, Iraq, Somalia and Kosovo. Alone, none
of these factors were deadly. Combined, they provided a lethal
combination.
It is our considered opinion that the events of 9/11 and those that
followed in direct response to the attacks – including the invasion
of Iraq – were carried out by good faith rational actors who
believed they were acting in the best interests of their religion
or their nation. There are no conspiracy theories here; sometimes
truth is stranger than fiction.
This opinion does not in any way absolve the principals from moral
responsibility for the consequences of their actions. It does,
however, provide what we believe to be a more accurate and nuanced
depiction of events than is generally forthcoming from any sector
of the media – because we see these principals as excellent chess
players who, in the broad sweep of events, engaged in actions which
are explicable.
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