Global Eye
Blurred Vision
By Chris Floyd, Published: September 17, 2004

By the time the dynastic manipulations of his family put Tiberius Caesar in power, the Roman Republic had long been a gutted carcass. Although the outward lineaments of state retained many of the old forms of popular government, behind these bones and tatters of hide there was nothing left but pestilent corruption and vicious court intrigue. Tiberius -- a cynical mediocrity overwhelmed by his responsibilities but too weak to give up the privileges that attended them -- knew full well the brutal reality that the ruling elite kept hidden beneath layers of pious sham and patriotic cant. When he saw how the great Senate -- where giants once clashed in fierce, open debate -- would come crawling to him, bowing and scraping, eager to act on his every whim, to accept his most brazen lies as sacred truth, he could not contain his disgust. "Men fit to be slaves," he would mutter, as they bent once again to his will.
No doubt the saturnine old ghost was smiling with grim satisfaction last week as another once-great deliberative body debased itself before a mediocre dynast. In one of the more shameless in a long series of vile and craven acts, the Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives smeared partisan filth across a legislative memorial to the innocents murdered on Sept. 11, 2001, by conflating that national tragedy with George W. Bush's war of aggression against Iraq.The Bushist toadies couldn't simply mark the solemn occasion with a few appropriate words of common grief and resolve. Instead, they turned the resolution into a tribute to the Dear Leader, larding it with praise for Bush's "reorganizing" of the United States (that old Constitutional malarkey had to go) "in order to more effectively wage the Global War on Terrorism" -- including, of course, the "destruction" of the "terrorist regime" in Iraq. Yet while the capture of Dick Cheney's former business partner, Saddam Hussein, was given prominent play in the resolution, the actual perpetrator of the Sept. 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden, was never mentioned.Thus this witless assemblage of bagmen and bootlickers (including, as usual, the vast majority of Democratic jellyfish) officially affirmed Bush's blood libel, his Hitlerian Big Lie: the supposed connection between Saddam and 9/11. "You can't distinguish between al Qaida and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror," Bush said in September 2002, when rolling out what his staff called the "product" -- i.e. a calculated campaign of fear and deception to drive the nation into war. "We've eliminated an ally of al Qaida," he declared in May 2003, while prancing about in military drag during his infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech. Bush and his minions have pounded this mendacious war drum so often, in so many ways, that even now, up to 50 percent of Americans still believe that Saddam was involved directly or indirectly in the 9/11 attacks -- although this canard was debunked yet again last week, this time by Colin Powell, The Washington Post reports. These lies have already led to the deaths of more than a thousand American troops -- and more than 30,000 innocent Iraqi civilians: a murderous hurricane 10 times the size of the storm that struck America on 9/11. Yet still the toadies crawled before the unelected pipsqueak, the oath-breaking coward who walked away from his own military service during wartime but now press-gangs soldiers into combat even after they've fulfilled their sworn duty requirements. The House measure slavishly regurgitated Bush's ludicrous assertion that the attack by Mr. Unnameable and his al Qaida crew was an assault on "the principles and values of the American people." But Bush knows that bin Laden doesn't care one way or another about American "values and principles," just as he didn't care about Soviet "principles and values" when he and the CIA were feasting on Red meat in Afghanistan back in the day. It's not "principles" but power politics that fuel bin Laden's aggression -- the same as with Bush. And both men's ultimate goal is the same: domination of the world's oil supply, which will bring them and their cronies untold riches and the power to further advance their harsh, perverted visions of society and religion. As we've said before, the "war on terror" is not a "clash of civilizations" or a "battle for freedom" -- it's a falling out among thieves, a gang fight over juicy turf.
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Email the Opinion Page EditorThe Congressional toadies are right about one thing, however: America's principles and values are under ferocious assault. But the assailant is their own little tin-pot Tiberius. Last week saw more damning revelations of the torture regime that Bush and his chief warlord, Donald Rumsfeld, have spread across the face of the earth. Seymour Hersh's new book, "Chain of Command," lays out in bone-chilling detail the system of assassination, sadism, rape and psycho-terror established by Bush, who issued secret presidential directives lifting legal constraints and even administrative oversight on his hit men and torturers. The dark heart of this black-op beast is the "Special-Access Program," created by Bush and Rumsfeld in late 2001 and sent forth with this sinister dictum, according to top intelligence officials: "Grab whom you must. Do what you want." These are the true "principles and values" that Bush is defending in his toady-lauded "war on terror" -- values he shares with his cave-dwelling doppelganger, Osama. Each uses the other to justify his own outrages, each feeds on the other to fuel his own bloodlust and political ambitions. Only a fool, or a hireling -- or a slave -- would bend to the will of such loathsome creatures. Chris Floyd's new book, "Empire Burlesque," is available at www.globaleyefloyd.com.

Annotations
Seymour Hersh: Rumsfeld's Dirty War on TerrorThe Guardian, Sept. 13, 2004
Osama: A Texas-Style Republican in Islamic ClothingOnline Journal, Sept. 12, 2004
Bush Team Knew of Abuse at GuantanamoThe Guardian, Sept. 13, 2004
House Resolution on September 11, 2001 AttacksU.S. House of Representatives, Sept. 9, 2004 Powell Sees no Direct Link Between Saddam, 9/11Washington Post, Sept. 12, 2004
Some Lawmakers Question 9/11 ResolutionWashington Post, Sept. 9, 2004
Al Qaeda Duped West Into Waging War: UK Envoy to IraqThe Scotsman, Sept. 11, 2004 Osama's Goals: September 11 and its AftermathInformed Comment, Sept. 11, 2004
Bush Has Always Been Soft on TerrorThe Guardian, Sept. 11, 2004
Operation IgnoreExcerpt, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," by Al Franken
The Hidden History of CIA TortureTomDispatch.com, Sept. 9, 2004
US Troops Face New Torture ClaimsThe Guardian, Sept. 14, 2004
Poll: Many Americans Still Believe Iraq Had WMDAssociated Press, Aug. 20, 2004 TiberiusEncyclopedia of Roman Emperors, Penn State University, Dec. 22, 2001
Senators Censure CIA in Iraq Abuse Probe Associated Press, Sept. 9, 2004
Reagan's WMD Connection to Saddam Hussein Freedom Foundation, June 18, 2004
Cheney Made Millions From Oil Deals With Hussein San Francisco Bay Guardian, Nov. 13, 2000

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