Terrorized By "War On Terror"-How A 3-Word Mantra Has Undermined America (Z. Brzezinski-Wapo Edit)

[kpete]

Terrorized by 'War on Terror'
How a Three-Word Mantra Has Undermined America

By Zbigniew Brzezinski
Sunday, March 25, 2007; B01


The "war on terror" has created a culture of fear in America. The Bush administration's elevation of these three words into a national mantra since the horrific events of 9/11 has had a pernicious impact on American democracy, on America's psyche and on U.S. standing in the world. Using this phrase has actually undermined our ability to effectively confront the real challenges we face from fanatics who may use terrorism against us.

The damage these three words have done -- a classic self-inflicted wound -- is infinitely greater than any wild dreams entertained by the fanatical perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks when they were plotting against us in distant Afghan caves. The phrase itself is meaningless. It defines neither a geographic context nor our presumed enemies. Terrorism is not an enemy but a technique of warfare -- political intimidation through the killing of unarmed non-combatants.

But the little secret here may be that the vagueness of the phrase was deliberately (or instinctively) calculated by its sponsors. Constant reference to a "war on terror" did accomplish one major objective: It stimulated the emergence of a culture of fear. Fear obscures reason, intensifies emotions and makes it easier for demagogic politicians to mobilize the public on behalf of the policies they want to pursue. The war of choice in Iraq could never have gained the congressional support it got without the psychological linkage between the shock of 9/11 and the postulated existence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Support for President Bush in the 2004 elections was also mobilized in part by the notion that "a nation at war" does not change its commander in chief in midstream. The sense of a pervasive but otherwise imprecise danger was thus channeled in a politically expedient direction by the mobilizing appeal of being "at war."

To justify the "war on terror," the administration has lately crafted a false historical narrative that could even become a self-fulfilling prophecy. By claiming that its war is similar to earlier U.S. struggles against Nazism and then Stalinism (while ignoring the fact that both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were first-rate military powers, a status al-Qaeda neither has nor can achieve), the administration could be preparing the case for war with Iran. Such war would then plunge America into a protracted conflict spanning Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and perhaps also Pakistan.

..................
Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, is the author most recently of "Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower" (Basic Books).

more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR2007032301613_pf.html

[kath]

1. Thanks, Mr. Brzezinski. I clench my teeth every time I hear that phrase. But, Zbiggy, you spelled

the word "terra" wrong. Thanks, though, for articulating so well the disgust so many of us feel about that phrase, and the damage it does.

(and thank you, thank you, thank you kpete, for continuing to find so much great stuff to post here!!)

[yurbud]

2. more evidence that the elite are kicking the Bushies to the curb. The odd thing is, Zbig

wrote a book on the need to get a foothold in Central Asia, THE GRAND CHESSBOARD.

It's got to be bad when the architect condemns the house.

[Toots]

7. Not the house but the builder of the house

I would venture a bet that the wy Bush* has gone about things is in no way similar to the way described in his book..

[yurbud]

12. like the difference between Bush and his dad--difference between a mugger and a con man

when you meet the mugger, you know you've been robbed. When the con man steals from you, you hope to see him again.

[riverdeep]

8. Well, even his dad says he's an idiot

I bet in private.

'Barr, that little W's a goddamn fool. I told that rotten kid don't go into Iraq, does it anyway, wasn't prudent.'

[yurbud]

13. "If only I'd pulled out of YOU like I pulled out of Iraq..."

[Morgana LaFey]

11. yep, and what I know of it reads like a PNAC Primer nt

[Hissyspit]

3. k&r

[jmg257]

4. More fear = more control = more loss of liberty.

And too many who happily say "I have nothing to hide" as their rights are stripped away for an illusion of safety. Bigger more intrusive governemnt, folks, that's what it is all about - it always has been. Some day it may happen - that enough of we the people wake up and demand, through whatever means necessary, a return of THEIR power.

[newyawker99]

9. Hi jmg257!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[jmg257]

16. Thanks! Cheers! nt

[CGowen]

5. The words Zbiggy? "The damage these three words have done -- a classic self-inflicted wound" nt

[WinkyDink]

6. Didn't ZB help start this whole mess via BinLaden and the mujahaden in Afghanistan?

I never trusted him.

[riverdeep]

10. Yeah,

ZB was Carter's National Security Advisor and together they, covertly, directed aid to the Islamic forces to, in his words "give the Soviets their own Vietnam." To be fair, Soviets were the boogeyman of the era and a Republican administration would have done the same thing or worse.
They also believed that a possiblity for the Soviets takin over control of the middle east from Afghanistan existed, and had to be stopped.

Both Dems and Pubs are warmongers and corporatists and interventionists.
Just the details change.

[yurbud]

14. He's the professor giving a student a failing grade--and Bush failed so bad that

it would be unlikly anyone could try again.

[cosmicdot]

15. confusing that he associates with Baker, Kissinger ...

Scowcroft, Sununu as a member of the Honorary Council of Advisors of the US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce (Lloyd Bentsen was, too, before his death) ... along with current USACC Trustee Brownback, Cheney, Armitage, current USACC Trustee Perle, etc. http://www.usacc.org/contents.php?cid=2

Azerbaijan being a Caspian Sea oil basin country. Bording the west coast of the Caspian Sea, north of Iran




... in what possibly could be one of those “semi-legitimate organizations" mentioned by Sibel Edmonds:


Chris Deliso: At several points you state that such organized crime networks employ "semi-legitimate organizations" as their point of interface with governments and the "legit" world. Can you explain exactly what you mean?

Sibel Edmonds: These are organizations that might have a legitimate front – say as a business, or a cultural center or something. And we've also heard a lot about Islamic charities as fronts for terrorist organizations, but the range is much broader and even, simpler.
http://americanjudas.blogspot.com/

"The Hijacking of a Nation" by Sibel Edmonds
http://www.counterpunch.org/edmonds11292006.html

In July 1998, Le Monde Diplomatique reported that in an explosive document made public at a press conference in Istanbul, the MIT, Turkish Intelligence Agency, accused Turkey's national police, of having "provided police identity cards and diplomatic passports to members of a group which, in the guise of anti-terrorist activities, traveled to Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary and Azerbaijan to engage in drug trafficking". MIT provided a list of names of some of the traffickers operating under the protection of the police. The Turkish police returned the compliment and handed over a list of named drug traffickers employed by the MIT!

~snip~

The 'respectable' Turkish companies established and operate bases in Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and other similar former soviet states. Many of these front companies, disguised under construction and tourism entities, have received millions of dollars in grants from the U.S. government, allocated to them by the U.S. congress, to establish and operate criminal networks throughout the region; among their networking partners are Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Albanian Mafia. While the U.S. government painted Islamic charity organizations as the main financial source for Al Qaeda terrorists, it was hard at work trying to cover up the terrorists' main financial source: narcotics and illegal arms sales. Why?

~snip~

Stanton notes: 'ATC is joined in the creation of the New EuroAsia by the American Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce (AACC). AACC's Honorary Council of Advisors just happens to have General Scowcroft and the following persons of significance: Henry Kissinger and James Baker III. Former Council members include Dick Cheney and Richard Armitage, and Board of Trustee members include media-overkill subject Richard Perle of AEI, and Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas.'

(MIT = the Turkish Intelligence Agency; ATC = American Turkish Council)

Map from the Caspian Sea Discourse library as think-tanked by the Council on Foreign Relations:
http://www.treemedia.com/cfr/


A culture of fear is not healthy on so many levels ... that's for sure.

[mmonk]

18. Yes, isn't it?

If everyone would step back, they can see all the pieces with what Sibel knows and probably Plame's front company organization knew as well.

And who helped create al Queda or backed them to drive the Russians out of Afghanistan?

[truedelphi]

19. Yep we told officials in Afghanistan that they could give

Us the oil pipeline and be given a carpet of gold, or refuse to do so and receive a carpet of bombs.

Not too long after their refusal, we bombed them.

[The Witch]

17. This was the awesome.

Never seen it in print before. Hallelujah.

[kath]

20. Kick

For those who missed it over the weekend.