Robert Fisk: The crushing fear that stalks America

Robert Fisk: The crushing fear that stalks America

Robert Fisk

The country is not at war. It is the US military that is engaged in an Iraqi conflict


There's a helluva difference between Cairo University and the campus of Valdosta in the Deep South of the United States. I visited both this week and I feel like I've been travelling on a gloomy spaceship - or maybe a time machine - with just two distant constellations to guide my journey. One is clearly named Iraq; the other is Fear. They have a lot in common.

...

Dr Michael Noll's students at Valdosta are as smart and bright-eyed as Dr El-Baradei's in Cairo. They packed into the same lecture I had given in Egypt and seemed to share a lot of the same fears about Iraq. But a sullen seminar that same morning was a miserable affair in which a young woman seemed to break down in anger. If "we" left Iraq, she said in a quavering voice, the jihadists, the "terrorists", could come here to America. They would attack us right here.

I sighed with frustration. I was listening to her voice but it was also the voice of the woman on Fox TV, the repeated, hopeless fantasy of Bush and Blair: that if we fail in Iraq, "they", the monstrous enemy, will arrive on our shores. Every day in the American papers now, I read the same "fear" transformed into irrationality. Luke Boggs - God, how I'd love that byline - announces in his local paper: "I say let the terrorists rot in Guantanamo. And let the Europeans ... howl. We are a serious nation, engaged in the serious business of trying to kill or capture the bad guys before they can do us more harm." He calls Guantanamo's inmates "hardcore jihadists".

And I realise that the girl in Dr Noll's seminar isn't spouting this stuff about "jihadists" travelling from Iraq to America because she supports Bush. She is just frightened. She is genuinely afraid of all the "terror" warnings, the supposed "jihadists" threats, the red "terror" alerts and the purple alerts and all the other colour-coded instruments of fear. She believes her president, and her president has done Osama bin Laden's job for him: he has crushed this young woman's spirit and courage.

...http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2387832.ece

so you could say he depends on it more than bin ladden.

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"they will come". History certainly does not support this assertion. 911 was not, as you undoubtedly believe, an outside job, ie; "jihadists". 911 was a CIA black op. Flame away, but consider the evidence dispassionately and you may arrive at the same conclusion. As you said, "... any attacks on us are probably more of a matter for the FBI and CIA than the military anyway". I don't think you realize how close to the truth you are.
As for the "terrorists", consider the history of the Algerian independence struggle against France, consider the Viet Nam War. In both instances the same lie was being propagated, namely, that if X pulled out, then the "terrorists" would follow them home and kill them there...nothing could be less true.
Jihadism is a convenient boogie-man for the military-industrial axis of evil. Stop being scared by such lies and focus on the real danger to America; the (Republican-empowered) shadow government.

time to turn off Fox News, Cindy. You're brainwashed

Republican/Corporate propaganda lack the ability to critically think, and have no clue as to any culture but their own. How many steps are they from strapping on an explosive vest and committing mayhem on those they perceive as enemies? Fear, warranted or not, causes irrational thinking and inappropriate responses to the situation at hand.
Karl Rove has capitalized on these fears and stoked them to make the junta's power grab and Constitution shredding acceptable to those unwilling to think for themselves (Fox News viewers).
The fearful, the greedy and the ignorant still support Karl Rove. Let's face it, Bush is the front man for a cabal of the worst gangsters that ever occupied this nation. Their Machiavellian tactics and fascist tendencies run counter to a free society and democratic principles.
The best defense against fascism starts with an education that not only includes, but is focused on critical thinking. As long as people aren't taught how to think, but what to think, they'll be easy pickings for the likes of Rove and his followers. The Russian Czar had Rasputin. Hitler had Goebbels. George Bush has Rove.
So how much has changed from Machiavelli to Rasputin to Goebbels to Rove? Rove has taken the most effective tactics and given us George W. Bush, a huckster and ill mannered crackpot dressed in a nice suit. Karl Rove is the key and he must be made to testify under oath and on TV for all to see. Maybe then the 20% who still believe in the monster in the closet or under the bed can go back to living like free people. Why is it so hard for Karl Rove to tell the truth?

Prior to all this, my republican family and I were on more cordial, sincere terms. Now, the conversation is stilted and superficial because we can no longer discuss politics, etc, because it's become to polarized. The distance between our beliefs has become a chasm the size of the Grand Canyon. From my side, I simply don't understand how the people who went through the same public school system I did could openly support fascism. From their side, they think we're doing 'good' by 'liberating' Iraq and fighting 'the terrorists' over 'there'.

See, you can discern the divide by the ample use of quotes in the last sentence. The chasm is so wide that I can't even write a straight sentence about their beliefs w/o using quotes. Quotes mean that something similar to [sic], which is to say:


sic /sik; Eng. sɪk/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adverb Latin.
so; thus: usually written parenthetically to denote that a word, phrase, passage, etc., that may appear strange or incorrect has been written intentionally or has been quoted verbatim: He signed his name as e. e. cummings (sic).

That, in a nutshell, is the chasm that now divides us all. :-(

have become the politics of fear mongering. We are fed and directed to a desired goal by tidbits of fear. Very few people know how to look past it.

were caught recently--using the appropriate police tactic, not by invading another country.

Also note that "they" are already here, in the sense that citizens and legal residents of a country can just as easily commit terrorist acts inside their own country if they feel they have reason to, and a sense of solidarity with a coreligionist nation that has been illegally invaded could be just what sets them off.

we know that 3 men have been arrested in connection with the 7/7 bombs, but not yet charged (and may not be, in the end - it was described as an 'intelligence-led operation', which have turned out to be targeted at completely innocent people before). And since they all lived in Britain (I'm not sure, but they are probably British citizens), you would expect a police operation.

But yes, it's not as if a terrorist would need Iraq, or anywhere in the Middle East, as a stepping stone to get to the USA. "Fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here" only makes sense if you think you are using American troops as bait; they shouldn't be, but it's possible Bush does actually think of them that way.

she said in a quavering voice, the jihadists, the "terrorists", could come here to America. They would attack us right here."

"Where are the terrorists going to get the wood to build the row boats to get over here?
We have basicly destroyed Iraq and have gone out of our way to keep it that way.

Scratch hate you find fear.

Scratch anger and you find fear.

Scratch Racism and you'll find fear.

Scratch homophobia and you'll find fear.

Primal, infantile fear.

The greatest crime of the ubber classes is selling the rest of the people fear...

damn them...

I'm grateful for his sanity but I fear for his safety...

Fisk has an interesting blend of charisma and showmanship. It's a fascinating one hour plus.

IIRC, it's available for online viewing at C-SPAN's website.

particularly when Goering so obviously gave the game plan away so many years ago

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.htm

Later in the conversation, Gilbert recorded Goering's observations that the common people can always be manipulated into supporting and fighting wars by their political leaders:

We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.

"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."

"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

nb - nice know for once a legendary quote appears to be true.