Reply #56: Final Part of My Analysis [View All]

[Bolo Boffin]

Pat Dawson: If there is a war against terrorism that started, rather ongoing right now, it started here at about a quarter to 9 this morning...

That's part of Pat Dawson's report from chapter 2, which I didn't transcribe for clarity. After viewing this last chapter, I see the significance of using the first part of that NBC report, along with the dedication from the beginning of the film:

In memory of all the innocent victims of the events of September 11, 2001 ...victims both in the U.S. and overseas wars that were justified and rationalized by the "attacks" on that fateful day.

These references to America's current foreign policy find their fruition in the upcoming chapter of our little exercise in propaganda.

Chapter 3:

Why?

(Cue Van Halen's Right Now)

(Footage: Ted Koppel - "It's not immediately evident, and no one in this administration is talking about it openly, but the war on terrorism could produce major dividends for the United States."

"In Central Asia, the Caspian region, enormous and valuable oil resources..."

Koppel, over graphic of pipeline route appearing on map: "Crossing war-torn Afghanistan, to Pakistan, and eventually, India"

"September 11th, the extraordinary events, the tragic events of September 11th, did create a new reality. As with every event, there are opportunities which arise from them."

Koppel: Indeed, it may well be that Washington has already begun to take advantage of those opportunities.

Colin Powell, from the UN: "America will have a continuing interest and presence in Central Asia, of a kind which we could not have dreamed of before."

Koppel: "All in the name of the war on terrorism."

Footage of fighter jets, tanks, soldiers on the ground, a Wanted Dead or Alive poster of Osama which morphs into Saddam's Ace of Spades card.)

Well, so far, so good. The Bush Administration took the initiative and put into play plans they had already hoped to go after. It's too bad that this summary of a Nightline report was preceded by such ludicrous arguments - it undercuts the power of what Koppel's saying.

Of course, in context of the film, the filmmakers are suggesting that Bush and company planned and executed the 9/11 attacks so that they could proceed with their oil and war plans apace. Since the arguments that people other than al-Qaeda planned those attacks have failed so spectacularly, we can safely ignore that and still keep this section clear.

Now did the Bush Administration drag its feet on international terrorism, hoping for an attack to blame on Saddam? What a devilishly difficult thing to prove. It's clear that they ignored clear and present warnings about Osama's plan's for an attack on America. But always with this crowd, they walk the line of plausible deniability. It's one of the first lessons of political power. How precisely could you prove that they drug their feet on al-Qaeda with the express motive of encouraging an attack that they could exploit?

Well, short of finding a memo stating just that with Bush's authentic signature, I can't think of a way. That isn't the kind of thing crafty people commit to paper anyway. (Retrofitting planes with missile pods and double helixes of shaped charges, though - that's not something you could draw up on the back of a napkin).

But did they need this attack to take on Saddam? Yes, it proved very useful, but did they need it? Couldn't they have ginned up a few fake documents to spread around, documents that showed Saddam was after more WMDs and thumbing his nose at world opinion? Isn't that what they were doing?

And, really, is there anybody here who believes that if Saddam could have gotten sanctions lifted, that he wouldn't have tried to start building his arsenal again? Please. He wasn't the threat that Bush made him out to be, and it would be quite a while before he could ever get into that kind of position again. But the man was not the friend of freedom by a long shot. And as is becoming clearer, he was also losing his grip in Iraq. Imagine if Iraq had fallen into the hands of Uday or Qusai.

That case could have been made to the world. A united effort to once and for all end the reign of Saddam Hussein in Iraq could have been done peacefully. We had options.

But 9/11 changed everything. Nobody denies that Bush took that and turned it into a bridge for his own devices. But no one is ever going to prove that the Bush Administration planned the 9/11 attacks by trying to prove that the WTC buildings fell because of controlled demolitions. Because that didn't happen.

This, however, did:

Afghanistan

Iraq

Imminent Threat

(Footage: Bush spouting plausibly deniable statements about Saddam's WMD)

Create Fear

Justify War

Create An Enemy

Raise The Stakes

(Footage: Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Bush spouting plausibly deniable statements about Saddam's nuclear capability)

("Iraq has never had the capability to do that. They didn't have it in the first Gulf War, they didn't have it in this war, and they don't have it, any way of getting it in the future.")

And for that, we have the Israelis to thank. But I digress...

David Albright: "Leaders will use worst case assessments that point to nuclear weapons to generate political support because they know that people fear nuclear weapons so much."

Yep, yep, and yep.

(Footage: American soldiers, Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rice)

(Ray McGovern: "The ties to al-Qaeda was just a scare tactic to exploit the trauma, the very real trauma, that the American people have felt since 9/11, and to associate that trauma with Iraq. As you know from the polls, most Americans believe that Iraq had something to do with 9/11, and it was a very successful, very deliberate, and very unethical and immoral operation on the part of the PR people in this administration.)

Very well put, Mr. McGovern.

(Crank the Van Halen)

What's Tomorrow?

Here's a preview...

(Footage: "Is there a chance that some of your civil liberties may slip, while we guarantee the security of this country? Maybe. May be.)

Footage: Satellites that can zoom in on a few feet. Prisoners may be implanted with devices that keep them within the parameters of an "invisible fence" like dogs. Subliminal message implanted in your subconscious. Diane Sawyer tells us about people volunteering to have identity microchips planted into their bodies. Andy Rooney says people may stop flying otherwise, and if that means he can't go to the Giants games, then the bastards have won.)

Okay, what was that Ray McGovern was saying about using fear tactics? I guess if it's good enough for the goose, it's good enough for the gander...but when somebody's trying to scare you, think really hard about what they're asking you to believe will save you.

FREEDOM TO QUESTION, DISSENT?

(Cue Alanis Morissette's Uninvited)

(Footage: Bill O'Reilly: "It's our duty as loyal Americans to Shut Up Publicly. We expect every American to support our military, and if they can't do that, to shut up.

Bill O'Reilly, to WTC victim's son: "So you keep your mouth shut.")

What a dildo.

DON'T SHUT UP

THINK FOR YOURSELF

ASK QUESTIONS

DEMAND ANSWERS

I plan on it.

THERE'S MORE AT STAKE THAN YOU THINK

Oh, really?

(Footage: September 11, 1990 - George H.W. Bush: "What is at stake is more than one small country. It is a big idea, a new world order..."

Gary Hart, 11 YEARS LATER: "There is a chance for the POTUS to use this disaster to carry out what his father, a phrase his father used only once, and hasn't been used since, and that is a new world order..."

Uh oh. Tell me this isn't wandering off into Skull and Bones paranoia...

SO WHO HAS A VOICE?

(Morley Safer: "Skull and Bones.")

:smacks hand on forehead:

(Safer continues: "The elite secret society whose members include some of the most powerful men of the twentieth century.")

YOU'RE UNINVITED

(Safer interviewee: "Power and privilege that are cloaked in secrecy. It's not supposed to be the way we do things. We're supposed to do things out in the open in America.)

(Safer (over some skull pictures from S&B house): "There's also an obsession with death and its trappings."

Why am I reminded of creationism here? People who believe something already, and then cobble together the worst kinds of logical explanations, not to actually explain something, but confuse the issues just enough to get you to throw a couple of bucks their way? Hmm. That's just so random of me. Let's continue...

(Tim Roberts, interviewing Bush: You were both in Skull and Bones, the secret society." Bush: "It's so secret we can't talk about it." Roberts: "What does that mean for America?")

(Tim Roberts, interviewing Kerry: "You bother were in Skull and Bones, a secret society at Yale. What does that tell us?" Kerry: "Not much, 'cause it's a secret.")

Let me tell you what this tells us. Here's two men. Both found themselves at Yale for different reasons. One earned his way there and was excited and proud of the accomplishment. The other got in because his family had always gone there and had the money to get him in. Both found themselves in Skull & Bones for different reasons. One was tapped because he was a campus leader, articulate and passionate, who showed extraordinary promise as a future leader of men. The other got in because his family had always gotten into S&B. Both took different paths after college - one served honorably and with incredible distinction in Vietnam, while the other got into the National Guard, thanks to his father's connections, and managed to screw even that cushy job up. John Kerry continued to show his leadership by taking part in the effort to end the Vietnam War, going to the Senate, and exposing several threats to America's liberties like the BCCI scandals. George W. Bush finally sobered up, sleazed his way through a few failed business (always failing upwards with the help of his daddy's friends), and finally became Governor of Texas, then Preznit of them United States.

The two of them found themselves paired again in a race for the White House. And this time, the legacy tap took the prize again. Which goes to show you that when the chips are down, it's more important to have old money connections than personal excellence and drive.

Plus, having your supporters own the companies that make the voting machines doesn't hurt either.

SECRET EVIL OF 9-11

(Crank the Morissette)

DID THE TERRORISTS HAVE HELP?

OR WERE THEY THE HELPERS?

(Footage: Bush - "The hijackers were instruments of evil who died in vain. Behind them is a cult of evil, which seeks to harm the innocent and thrives on human suffering...)

(Picture of Bonesmen surrounding skulls,)

(Bush footage resumes: "Theirs is the worst kind of cruelty, a cruelty that is fed, not weakened, by tears. Theirs is the worst kind of violence, pure malice while daring to claim the authority of God. We cannot fully understand the designs and power of evil. It is enough to know that evil, like goodness, exists, and in the terrorists, evil has found a willing servant.)

(Rewind that one: "...evil has found a willing servant.")

(Rewind it again, and this time, slow it down so Bush's voice gets all deep and Darth Vadery, I swear to God: "EVIL HAS FOUND A WILLING SERVANT.")

I must thank the makers of this film. I haven't laughed like that for ages. That was at least ten minutes of low, mordant chuckling which seemed to be able to build into outright hooting endlessly. The neighbors started banging on the wall. That was priceless.

This film springs from deep wells of wingnuttery. We're talking Patriot land here - those kooks who haunt sites like Stormfront.org and the American Free Press, who think Timothy McVeigh was framed, who think David Koresh was a victim of the FBI.

DON'T BE EVIL'S SERVANT

Let's take a look at what the servants of righteousness have on their iPods:

Music by:
Guns 'n Roses - Coma
Guns 'n Roses - Dead Horse
Sarah MacLachlan - Hold On
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Bullet Boys - Rock Candy
U2 - Mothers of the Disappeared
Guns 'n Roses - November Rain
Van Halen - Right Now
Allanis Morissette - Uninvited

This is also know as the list of recording artists who would sue the asses off the filmmakers if they ever found out about this film - that is, what was left of their asses after the MSM news corporations got done with them.

Fireman radio recording used in this film provided by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

This they got permission for? Whatever.

(Recue the Pat Dawson report about a secondary device going off.)

Yadda yadda yadda.

You know, if I was a paranoid type, I'd think that the people who'd be embarrassed by the very real questions being displayed by the third chapter (until we ventured off into Illuminatiland) might have put something like this together to undermine those who might ask real questions. After all, if they could pull off associating Saddam Hussein with al-Qaeda (and to most Americans, that would be only slightly more difficult than associating Michael Jackson with pedophilia), then associating attempts to question the administration's rush to war with 9/11 kookiness would be a piece of cake.

But I've learned a long hard lesson over my life: never attribute to malice what incompetence suffices to explain. I can't see cynicism daring to try that slowdown of Bush at the end of the film. It's such misguided overkill! Only true believers could put something like that together.

And so we come to the end of our "powerful documentary movie". I hope you enjoyed your picture show...I know I did.