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Conditioning the US Public To Accept Bush's Crimes

Comment by Larry Ross, March 26, 2007

Zbigniew Brzezinski is one of the most respected, long-serving analysts and commentators on US policies. He claims Bush's "war on terror" mantra has undermined America and turned it into a paranoid, frightened people. As a long-term insider and employee of various administration, he does not tell the whole truth and avoids some issues.

But what he does say is well worth reading and thinking about. It fits in with the theories of those who believe that American has been taken over by a criminal conspiracy whose aim is to build an American Empire. By pushing the 'war-on-terror's mantra and preparations, Bush has created a great success and magnified the power of the executive. He can stage wars, create the 'intelligence' needed, and even use nuclear weapons according to his plans.

The new Democratically-controlled Congress has totally capitulated to Bush's power, even signalling that he can proceed with his plans for a war on Iran.

The power of the Bush criminal conspiracy is virtually unlimited and is backed by at least 25% of the richest, most powerful people and institutions in America, including many who are afraid not to appear to support the many manifestations of Bushism.

People like Brzezinski may live to be sorry they did not speak out earlier and more frankly and forcibly - rather than avoiding certain facts and issues.

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Terrorized by 'War on Terror'

How a Three-Word Mantra Has Undermined America

by Zbigniew Brzezinski, March 25, 2007

The "war on terror" has created a culture of fear in America. The Bush administration's elevation of these three words into a national mantra since the horrific events of 9/11 has had a pernicious impact on American democracy, on America's psyche and on U.S. standing in the world. Using this phrase has actually undermined our ability to effectively confront the real challenges we face from fanatics who may use terrorism against us.

The damage these three words have done -- a classic self-inflicted wound -- is infinitely greater than any wild dreams entertained by the fanatical perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks when they were plotting against us in distant Afghan caves. The phrase itself is meaningless. It defines neither a geographic context nor our presumed enemies. Terrorism is not an enemy but a technique of warfare -- political intimidation through the killing of unarmed non-combatants.

But the little secret here may be that the vagueness of the phrase was deliberately (or instinctively) calculated by its sponsors. Constant reference to a "war on terror" did accomplish one major objective: It stimulated the emergence of a culture of fear. Fear obscures reason, intensifies emotions and makes it easier for demagogic politicians to mobilize the public on behalf of the policies they want to pursue. The war of choice in Iraq could never have gained the congressional support it got without the psychological linkage between the shock of 9/11 and the postulated existence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Support for President Bush in the 2004 elections was also mobilized in part by the notion that "a nation at war" does not change its commander in chief in midstream. The sense of a pervasive but otherwise imprecise danger was thus channeled in a politically expedient direction by the mobilizing appeal of being "at war."

To justify the "war on terror," the administration has lately crafted a false historical narrative that could even become a self-fulfilling prophecy. By claiming that its war is similar to earlier U.S. struggles against Nazism and then Stalinism (while ignoring the fact that both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were first-rate military powers, a status al-Qaeda neither has nor can achieve), the administration could be preparing the case for war with Iran. Such war would then plunge America into a protracted conflict spanning Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and perhaps also Pakistan.

The culture of fear is like a genie that has been let out of its bottle. It acquires a life of its own -- and can become demoralizing. America today is not the self-confident and determined nation that responded to Pearl Harbor; nor is it the America that heard from its leader, at another moment of crisis, the powerful words "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"; nor is it the calm America that waged the Cold War with quiet persistence despite the knowledge that a real war could be initiated abruptly within minutes and prompt the death of 100 million Americans within just a few hours. We are now divided, uncertain and potentially very susceptible to panic in the event of another terrorist act in the United States itself.

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