SOME COMMENTARY ON THE EVENTS OF 11 SEPTEMBER 2001
INDEX
GRAVE NEW WORLD
By David F. Nolan
Every 20 years or so, there is a day where the whole world changes, suddenly and dramatically. Often those days are marked by the assassination of a president or other prominent figure. Sometimes, the precipitating event is a financial panic or act of war.
September 11, 2001 was one of those days. The full impact of the terrorist attacks on the people of the United States is not yet known, but it will be far-reaching. The destruction of the World Trade Center will likely play as great a role in shaping the 21st century as the assassinations of McKinley, Kennedy and the Archduke Ferdinand played in the 20th.
Already, a great majority of the American people are willing, even eager, to accept new restrictions on their freedoms in order to "combat terrorism." And the politicians are only too eager to oblige them, even as they mouth platitudes about "freedom under attack."
Of course, it is those very politicians -- the Bushes and Clintons of the world -- who stirred up the hatred that enabled despots and terrorists around the world to rally their followers to attack innocent Americans. The primary blame for the grisly acts of terror which stunned the world on September 11 lies with those who perpetrated them, coldly planning and executing complex and coordinated schemes to kill thousands of innocent victims. But it is America's "bipartisan" foreign policy that set the stage for these events.
In the coming weeks, we will be treated to an unending stream of propaganda about how "we" were attacked and how "we" must pull together to support our nation's rulers. We will be told that we must accept new restrictions, relinquish even more of our privacy, give the police and the military even more power, carry national ID cards, etc., etc., etc.
For what? To combat terrorism? These measures will fail, because the real problem lies not in our nation's "lax security" but in its leaders' unquenchable desire to meddle in the affairs of other people all over the world. We are outraged -- as we should be -- when thousands of innocent Americans are killed by foreign terrorists. But where was the outrage when President Bush the First and his successor Bill Clinton ordered air strikes throughout Europe and the Mideast, year after year?
Things are about to get a lot uglier in the United States, as our rulers seek to impose new controls on an already over-policed America. And people who should know better are jumping on the bandwagon, excoriating anyone who dares to point out that America's "leaders" bear some of the blame for yesterday's heinous act.
I have long predicted that the fate of America in the 21st century will likely be decided around the year 2004; the events of September 11, 2001 make that possibility seem even more likely. The weeks, months and years ahead will prove crucial in the battle for individual liberty. If we who love liberty are not vigilant and united in our efforts to prevent the imposition of a full-blown American Police State, the greatest casualty of September 11's terrorist attacks will be the rights and liberties of the American people.
September 12, 2001
PS: Please feel free to forward this commentary to anyone you feel would benefit from reading it.
David F. Nolan was a co-founder of the Libertarian Party.
"THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF ..."
by J. Neil Schulman
A lot of people whose only exposure to history is from soundbytes are familiar with the phrase "the
only thing we have to fear is fear itself," and they know that these words were spoken by President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They probably think FDR originated this statement in one of his speeches
during World War Two. But he said it during his first inaugural address on Saturday, March 4,
1933, six years before the beginning of World War II and over eight years before the attack on Pearl
Harbor brought the United States into that war. The cause of the fear FDR was referring to was the
economic depression America was in when he took office. Roosevelt was warning America not to let
the economy be paralyzed by their fears. As a libertarian I may disagree with his solution, but FDR's
warning was valid.
It struck me that President George W. Bush has told us that America is now in a war against
Terrorism. What is terrorism if not the goal of producing a paralyzing fear?
And nowhere has fear been more effective in creating paralysis than in the American airline
industry.
On the day of the attack, when terrorists seized and caused the destruction of four American
passenger jetliners and successfully used three of them as weapons of mass destruction, the FAA
grounded all American aviation. Airports were shut down. Flights into the United States were sent
back or diverted to Canada. Foreign airlines were told not to attempt to land in the United States.
It was several days before there was another commercial flight. By that time, one financially
troubled American airline company, Midway, had already declared bankruptcy. Americans who
couldn't travel in their own cars were using any other means of transportation possible to avoid
flying: trains, buses, rental cars, limousines, taxicabs.
And no wonder! New airport security regulations have made even a flight without a terrorist a
nightmare. At Los Angeles International Airport it is now forbidden for private automobiles to pick
up or drop off passengers at a terminal. The Skycaps are now jobless since all baggage must go
through additional inspections. The electronic ticketing that had become so popular and had
simplified boarding procedures is now as cumbersome as the old paper ticketing.
The average wait at a ticket counter before one may even proceed to one's flight is averaging
between two and three hours for domestic flights and up to six hours for international flights. Then
one must proceed through security checkpoints where the possibility of a full body cavity search is
possible if one is found to be carrying a forgotten nail file or a plastic letter opener. Carry on
baggage is being eliminated from many flights, requiring that upon arrival one must go through the
incredible hassles of retrieving one's bags from the carousels, with even more time delays and all the
well-known problems of lost, stolen, and damaged bags worse than ever.
Virtually no one contemplating these facts is choosing to travel for pleasure, and many businesses are
instituting new policies reducing or eliminating the necessity of their employees flying on company
business. Some corporations have even instituted a policy that exempts any employee who chooses
from flying on company business, period.
Only a week after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, all the commercial American airline
companies are within weeks of declaring bankruptcy themselves. They have cut back on scheduled
flights by 20 percent already, and have begun layoffs of airline employees that may top 100,000 jobs
eliminated within days.
House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D, Missouri) has called for Americans to save the
airlines by boarding planes again. He is, in essence, suggesting that Americans suck it up and forget
their fears of terrorist attacks in order to save the American airline industry.
But it is not the fear of the American people that is destroying the American airline companies. We
have learned about the heroic passengers of United Airlines Flight 93, disarmed by longstanding
Federal Aviation Administration policy but having heard what other hijacked airliners were being
used for, make an unarmed attack on the only person who knew how to fly the plane -- the
pilot-hijacker who had already murdered the United flight crew -- in order to prevent the passenger
jetliner they were on from being crashed into buildings and murdering thousands of their
countrymen.
Nowadays there is an agreement between the terrorists who capture jetliners to use them as weapons
of mass destruction, and those who are calling for sealing airline pilots into their cockpits no matter
what happens in the passenger compartment. That agreement between the terrorists and the
counter-terrorists is that the passengers, the reason for the existence of the jetliner itself, are as
expendable as dumping jet fuel. The metal is now more important than the flesh.
It is not only at airports where "fear itself" is going to paralyze us. We already fear, and will fear
more, taking our loved ones to concerts, sporting events, high-rise buildings, theme parks,
government buildings, and many other places that are tempting targets for terrorist reprisals, once
the armed forces of the United States engage the enemy overseas. We fear that public gatherings
could turn deadly from terrorists with bombs or strategically placed machine guns. We fear that the
enemy is already among us with horrific weapons of mass destruction including biological agents,
chemical weapons, or even nuclear bombs.
President Bush was correct when he told us we must get back to work.
Congressman Gephardt is right when he tells us to suck it up.
But it is not the fear of the American people that is the threat to our economic and community life. It
is the fear of our policy makers, including Congressman Gephardt, that is the main problem.
We all remember the grade-school teacher who, hit by a spitball while writing on the blackboard,
punished the whole class because she didn't know whom the perpetrator was. Our leaders are acting
like that teacher.
Because there are a few -- very few -- terrorists among us, and our government's investigators
doesn't know who they all are, our policy makers are punishing all of us. They are treating all of us
like terrorists. Our leaders are terrified of the American people and in their fear it is they who are
paralyzing our national life and our economy.
It's time we told them they have to trust us again.
If anyone needs to suck it up, it's them.
For years I have spoken about the necessity of restoring the Second Amendment to its intended
purpose of regarding the armed citizen as an asset, rather than a liability, in the struggle against
crime and terrorism. During peacetime my words have largely succeeded in rousing only the choir. I
am hoping that now we are at war against an enemy within us, my words will have impact among
those of my countrymen who have thought them unwise.
Americans with guns can prevent many, but of course not all, of the scenarios by which terrorists
can damage us further. It can prevent the terrorist taking over of subway cars and busses. It can
provide an effective means of stopping the machine gunning of crowds before mass casualties occur.
It can prevent a truck stop, or a tanker truck carrying flammable liquids or hazardous materials,
from being turned into an enemy asset. It might prevent the takeover of tollbooths at a bridge or a
tunnel.
And yes, as I have said repeatedly this past week, letting airline passengers with badges and licenses
carry concealed firearms onboard with their guns, checked only for the proper ammunition that will
not cause critical damage to airliner control surfaces, can make sure that the next time passengers
need to take on hijackers, they might be able to avoid having to crash the plane in order to save those
still on the ground. They might be able to land safely themselves and get medical help for the
casualties.
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
President Bush, his cabinet, our governors and mayors, our legislators and city councils, and the
ladies and gentlemen who serve in our civil services: we are your countrymen. If you can't stop
being afraid of us, if you can't trust us with a gun when our enemies can take over a critical asset
with a box cutter, then how can you ever expect us to stop being afraid and return our country to
normality?
Note:
The following was originally posted on the Free Republic website.
TO ALL LAPTOP BOMBARDIERS:
by Bob Weber
I grew up in the Conservative Movement. I was one of the crowd that packed Dodger Stadium in 1964 to hear Barry Goldwater. But this thread is a reminder of why I'm no longer a Conservative and don't generally care to associate with them.
While there are some good and thoughtful Conservatives still around, such as the magnificent Joe Sobran, and a minority of Freepers (though I suspect most of them are actually Libertarians) the blithe talk here of nuclear mass murder illustrates the moral depravity and stupidity of much of contemporary Conservatism.
Your fantasy of the mass slaughter of innocents is simply too sickening for words. "Sure," you will reply, "But we're just taking revenge for the slaughter of our innocents at the World Trade Center." You might wish to consider that they might have thought that THEY were taking revenge for the slaughter of their innocents ‹ like the thousands of Iraqi children who have died as a result of the U.S.-led Hunger Blockade of Iraq. (When the pin-up girl of the New World Order, Madeleine Albright, was asked about this, she said she thought it was "worth it". Obviously, someone thought that the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans was also "worth it.")
You're also too stupid to realize that the U.S. has become an Empire, not a Republic, and that what you and I think doesn't make a bit of difference to the Imperial Elite who run this country. Garrett Garrett pointed out almost fifty years ago that a hallmark of Empire is that power concentrates in the Executive, where decisions are made without public debate or scrutiny [Garrett2 was the author of The People's Pottage, a classic work of the paleo-conservative movement.]. To illustrate, just before the hijackings Dubya announced that he was reneging on his pledge to get the U.S. out of the Balkans, that he was indeed now extending the U.S. commitment to include Macedonia (where NATO is now protecting the CIA-backed Islamic terrorists of KLA-UCK in their drive for a Greater Albania) and that the U.S. would be there for the duration (read: forever). Was there any public debate on this? Was this debated in Congress, any more than the U.S.'s stationing of troops in over 100 nations overseas? One small man commits the resources of an entire nation.
But there's also a pathetic quality to your stupidity. You sit at your laptops with your sick and twisted fantasies and think that the Empire listens to you. The Empire will do what it wants, not what you want, and won't ask your opinion any more than it asked you about its financing of Osama Bin Laden in the first place, or how it will spend billions subverting nations and propping up 3rd World thugs. All they want from you is your obedience and your money, and it looks like they'll get it. Sorry to disappoint you, but the Elite isn't going to nuke anyone just yet ‹ they're smarter than you and won't do it. (That's why they're running the Empire and you're not.) You'll wake up tomorrow to find that your little fantasy was just a wet dream ‹ but don't worry, the Empire will be filing a claim on your liberties, your fortunes, and your lives ‹ just like it will those of plenty of foreigners.
If you want to forestall future tragedies like this, you must restore the Republic:
Bob Weber is a Los Angeles area political activist.
HELPFUL SITES IN THE DAYS AHEAD
J. Neil Schulman
September 19, 2001
You may reach Congressman Richard A. Gephardt on the following web pages:
http://dickgephardt.house.gov/contact.asp
http://democraticleader.house.gov/corner/email.asp
"The other rain is sunshine."
--J. Neil Schulman, July 21, 2000
EaZychair.com: http://www.eaZychair.com
Tangleweed.com: http://www.tangleweed.com
Pulpless.Com Book Catalog: http://www.pulpless.com
The World According to J. Neil Schulman: http://jneil.tv
The World Wide Web Gun Defense Clock: http://www.gunclock.org
get out of the U.N., get out of NATO, get out of all entangling alliances, and bring the troops home. Send packing the Empire and it's apparatus: The government jobholders in the State Department and the CIA ‹ the ostensibly private lamprey organizations that feed off the taxpayer: the "think tanks", corporations like Dyncorp and Brown & Root -- and the media sycophants from right to left: The Washington Times, National Review (featuring John "Give me an Empire, not a Republic" Derbyshire), The Weekly Standard with the Kagan - Kristol "benevolent world hegemony" crowd, the New Republic, and the L.A. and N.Y. Times. Send them all packing.
Anything else is futile.