9-11 Revisited & Re-revisited

Bridgethought of the Day: Was 9-11 the result of insufficient draconian security measures, or inept foreign policy, or ... the consequences of ignoring intelligence information we had? Or shall we simply blame others, and solve all our problems by revenge?

Republican solution to all problems: Find your avenging angel, or avenging angelic host, as the case may be. Problem is, sometimes that "angel" turns devil on you. Revenge is never a cut-&-dried business, but always gets very messy.

Recent polls indicate that a significant number of Muslims in this country feel that 9-11 was somehow part of a conspiracy by the U.S. government. Being as the brunt of 9-11 vengeance hit the Muslim world and Muslims in particular over any other group by far, it should surprise no one that Muslims feel this is part of an American government conspiracy. Why suddenly are they targeted for wrath, when this was the work of a small group of extremists that many Muslims would argue are acting on anything but Islam, whose actions are actually prohibited by Islam? To them, it seems reasonable that a country like the U.S. could not be so incompetent as to allow a band of outlaws like this to cause such a major catastrophe, and a group of Muslims would not do such an obviously prohibited (haram) act.

However, they fail to take into account this Administration's penchant for incompetence, favoritism, and fantasy-led policies that often lead to totally incomprehensible conclusions. They also may fail to take into account that not all - in fact, many - Muslims are ignorant of their own religion, and use its name to justify agendas that have little nothing to do with religion to begin with.

With that, here are some excerpts from DC Downsizer's take on 9-11, which offers a reasonable assessment of U.S. culpability in this horrific event without jumping onto the conspiracy train:

"Given the subject of our latest campaign it seems incumbent upon us to
state where we stand on the subject of 9-11 Truth.

• We feel there is sufficient evidence to assert that the federal government
  had all the powers and resources it needed to prevent the 9-11 attacks. *
• It knew that Osama bin Laden was planning to attack the United States.*
• It knew that Al Queda agents were operating in the country.* It knew that
  suicide attacks with airplanes were a real possibility.*
• It knew that suspicious person were learning how to fly airplanes, with, in
  at least one case, an alarming disinterest in learning how to land them.
• The federal government had the power, without the PATRIOT Act, or torture,
  or REAL ID, or illegal wiretaps, to learn everything it needed to know to stop
  the 9-11 attacks. If the federal government had simply used the powers and
  resources it already had the 9-11 attacks would have failed, and many thousands
  of people who are now dead would still be alive and in the arms of their
  families.9-11 is a textbook case of the government's congenital institutional
  inability to focus and perform competently.

If the federal government had simply done its job, using what it already had,
then there would have been no . . . *

• Disastrous war in Iraq, *
• Bloated Department of Homeland Security, *
• Overbearing TSA, *
• Invasive PATRIOT Act, *
• Dangerous REAL ID Act, *
• Unconscionable Torture-Tribunal law, *
• Illegal spying on American citizens, *
• Or a whole host of other government transgressions.

Here is the truth, with a little "t," about 9-11: It was a day of massive
government failure.

Here is another truth about 9-11: No one in government, and no institution of
the government, was held accountable, or paid any price, for this failure.

Here is another truth about 9-11: The federal government, and the people who
run it, were actually rewarded for their failure on 9-11, instead of being held
accountable. The federal government failed on 9-11, but the President and the
Congress did NOT hold themselves accountable for this failure. Instead, they
exploited their own incompetence to grant themselves massive new powers and
recources, at your expense. Worse still, Congress and the President have used
these massive new powers and resources to commit even larger failures, such as
the war in Iraq.

These new failures have made YOU LESS SECURE, rather than more secure.

Government fails consistently, because the institution of government, and the
people in government, NEVER PAY ANY PRICE for failure. Government fails
consistently, because the people in government are CONSISTENTLY REWARDED FOR FAILURE by gaining greater power and greater access to your wallet. The incentives by which our government operates are completely backward: Government is always rewarded for its failures, so its incentive is to constantly fail. This is the fundamental truth about 9-11.

Are there others truths that also matter and that have been neglected?
Perhaps. But the idea that the Bush administration somehow conspired with Al
Queda to bring about the attacks, is almost certainly not among them.It
makes zero sense that the Bush administration would have been capable of such a massive crime, but incapable, a few months later, of planting WMD's in Iraq. On this basis alone, most of the 9-11 conspiracy theories are non-starters. This does not mean that the Bush administration did not exploit 9-11 to do things it wanted to do anyway. Of course it did.
Neither does it rule out that some members of the administration may have been
intentionally incompetent in order to permit the inciting "Pearl Harbor
incident" they were on record as hoping for in advance. But both of these things
are a far cry from most of the conspiracy theories that parade under the banner
of "9-11 Truth."

Sadly, the focus on wild theories has tarnished the words "9-11 Truth," and
made it harder to actually get at the truth. We have been inundated with
films and books and articles about 9-11. We have heard all the claims and
studied all the supposed evidence.Big claims require big evidence and many "9-11
Truth" claims fail this test.

This is why we recommend a documentary film called "9/11 Press for
Truth.""9/11 Press for Truth" is different. It makes few claims, but presents a
lot of big evidence. Seeing this movie has prompted us to take action to compel
the federal government to re-investigate its own performance on 9-11, and to
assume a responsibility equal to its great powers. The proper federal response
to 9-11 should have been to downsize, streamline, and focus. Instead, it
used its own failures to upsize, complicate, and thrash about in all directions. We want Congress to take another look at 9-11, and this time attribute
blame, impose penalties, and adopt policies that will enable government to
better overcome its innate incompetence."

After hearing so many lies, one is naturally skeptical about anyone who comes along, claiming to have "The Truth." I myself wouldn't have used this expression. And in trying to "downsize" and "streamline" government, there's always the tricky situation of having to make more government laws and requiring more government enforcement in order to have less government intrusion. But I'm sure there are many intelligent enough to pull it off. If only there were more intelligent enough not to believe everything they hear.