9/11 Conspiracies: Truth More Mudane and Scarier
I usually mark the Anniversary of Sept 11th by building a six-foot tall paper machete Osama Bin Laden and flying a remote controlled model airplane covered in American flags into his recently hardened crotch. (The beard is always the toughest bit to get right. I thought about using real hair but …) But then I heard about who was really responsible for the attacks of 9/11. I could barely stand to look at my creation. Turns out Osama was innocent! I ran out of time to finish my little Black Ops figures in time to fit them into the cockpit. I was going to whittle them out of the paper on which the lies about who was really responsible for the attacks of 9/11 are printed on.
If you want to believe that group of loosely connected religious extremists who had organized attacks against American interests in the past and who had already once tried to blow up the World Trade Center were responsible for the attacks as so many believe (including Bin Laden himself) then I have some land in Florida you might be interested in. Actually, it's really nice land. On the Atlantic side. I was down there last year and had a really great time…
The beautiful thing about conspiracy myths is that you don't need much evidence to support your claims. In fact, there is an inverse ratio to the amount of evidence you have to the believability of the claim. Of course there's no evidence, you say, it's a conspiracy! A typical discussion about conspiracy theories usually breaks down somewhere around the second rebuttal, the skeptic dismissed as a stooge or part of the machine covering up the truth. Conspiracy theories, like any strongly held belief, are impregnable by facts. Try convincing a biblical literalist that the world isn't six thousand years old and you will find yourself conveniently placed amongst the non-believers, your arguments summarily waved away as the ravings of a hell-bound heretic. You don't believe so how could you possibly understand. The inherent contradictions merely become another layer of defense to repel you. So if you believe the party line on 9/11 you're complicit in the Bush conspiracy.
Now I'm not saying there isn't anything dubious going on. The Bush administration lied its way into the war. But it's not like truth wasn't out there for anyone to find it if they cared to look. And well-connected corporations continue to make a killing off the killing in Iraq. The markups on the war effort are enough to make any retail executive wish all their customers worked for the United States government. The truth about 9/11 is far more mundane and far scarier.
At several stages the plot was close to being discovered. But it was human failings, not a grand conspiracy, that lead to 9/11. There are several accounts that tell of agents from different agencies all following the same trail but, wanting the collar all for themselves, failed to share intelligence what would have connected all the disparate trails. These are human failings and even with the changes made to many of the secuirty agencies, it only takes one pig-headed idiot (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld - fuck that's 3!) to undo all that work. And we've still had bombings in London, Madrid and India.
And let’s not forget we’re dealing here with religious extremists who don’t fear death, who believe God blesses their every hateful move, who believe in the end of the world and seem to want to bring it on sooner than later. And yes, that describes both sides of this mournful equation. But let’s not let Osama Bin Laden and his ilk off the hook because we’d like to see the Bushites pay for their hubris.
Below is a link to the Popular Mechanics article debunking many popular conspiracy theories about 9/11 attacks:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/1227842.html
If you want to believe that group of loosely connected religious extremists who had organized attacks against American interests in the past and who had already once tried to blow up the World Trade Center were responsible for the attacks as so many believe (including Bin Laden himself) then I have some land in Florida you might be interested in. Actually, it's really nice land. On the Atlantic side. I was down there last year and had a really great time…
The beautiful thing about conspiracy myths is that you don't need much evidence to support your claims. In fact, there is an inverse ratio to the amount of evidence you have to the believability of the claim. Of course there's no evidence, you say, it's a conspiracy! A typical discussion about conspiracy theories usually breaks down somewhere around the second rebuttal, the skeptic dismissed as a stooge or part of the machine covering up the truth. Conspiracy theories, like any strongly held belief, are impregnable by facts. Try convincing a biblical literalist that the world isn't six thousand years old and you will find yourself conveniently placed amongst the non-believers, your arguments summarily waved away as the ravings of a hell-bound heretic. You don't believe so how could you possibly understand. The inherent contradictions merely become another layer of defense to repel you. So if you believe the party line on 9/11 you're complicit in the Bush conspiracy.
Now I'm not saying there isn't anything dubious going on. The Bush administration lied its way into the war. But it's not like truth wasn't out there for anyone to find it if they cared to look. And well-connected corporations continue to make a killing off the killing in Iraq. The markups on the war effort are enough to make any retail executive wish all their customers worked for the United States government. The truth about 9/11 is far more mundane and far scarier.
At several stages the plot was close to being discovered. But it was human failings, not a grand conspiracy, that lead to 9/11. There are several accounts that tell of agents from different agencies all following the same trail but, wanting the collar all for themselves, failed to share intelligence what would have connected all the disparate trails. These are human failings and even with the changes made to many of the secuirty agencies, it only takes one pig-headed idiot (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld - fuck that's 3!) to undo all that work. And we've still had bombings in London, Madrid and India.
And let’s not forget we’re dealing here with religious extremists who don’t fear death, who believe God blesses their every hateful move, who believe in the end of the world and seem to want to bring it on sooner than later. And yes, that describes both sides of this mournful equation. But let’s not let Osama Bin Laden and his ilk off the hook because we’d like to see the Bushites pay for their hubris.
Below is a link to the Popular Mechanics article debunking many popular conspiracy theories about 9/11 attacks:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/1227842.html
posted by Soft Headed Liberal at 11:56 AM
2 Comments:
I watched a CBC report on Sunday that was talking about the "Conspiracies" and it too talked to the folks at Popular Mechanics (the link didn't come up on your post by the way).
I don't know which side to believe but the fact that I really don't like Bush might just bring me onto the side of the conspiracies which makes me shudder to think that Idiot is still in Power and he's still sending people's sons and daughter to Iraq. I heard a report on the news this morning that quoted him as saying he believes the war has "just begun".
sigh....
Like I said Bush and his cronies - and now Harper -have mishandled the terrorism file. they've made us more of a target, not less. They squandered all the goodwill they had after 9/11. But let's not let our hetred of Bush let Bin Laden and his murderous religious zealots off the hook either.
I'll tell you onr thing, Mason. You rock and that's no conspiracy!
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