Hearing From Bin Laden? Nah

Mr. Randolph,
You're welcome for the chuckle.

I wish I could say the same. I find it sad that so many Americans have no difficulty with extraordinary rendition, with torture (according to ex-White House lawyer John Yoo, the President has the right to crush the testicles of a child in front of his parents- have you really come to this?) America has imprisoned children as young as eight. It is responsible for the murder of perhaps a million Iraqis (sometimes for sport) and displacement of four or so million others, all based on deception and lies and the willingness of the American people to believe whatever they're told. So much for the 'home of the brave'.

No one seems to give a damn. It's 'what you do'...

Americans support savage warlords in Afghanistan, bomb and otherwise kill civilians in the thousands, tolerate the highest rate of poppy growth in history (and the ensuing importation of heroin into America), admire politicians that joke 'Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran', first-strike nuclear policies, and the pre-emptive weaponization of space. Americans tolerate the abolition of habeas corpus, the use of military force on American soil, the establishment of domestic concentration camps and (soon) the use of thermal and other weapons against assembly and free speech, pre-emptive police raids on peaceful protesters. And on and on.

Some years ago, a group of influential Americans, including Dick Cheney, organized PNAC for the specific purpose of establishing 'Full Spectrum Dominance'- taking over the world. PNAC hoped for a 'new Pearl Harbor event' to 'catylize' the people into accepting the plan.

Then along came 9/11, but we're asked to believe it's a coincidence. As if the Bush administration, the most downright evil in a history which is rife with it since the original Native genocide, would never stoop to such a thing, despite precedents. Despite the overwhelming evidence. Oh, those 'conspiricy nuts'! As if 9/11 were not the very definition of a conspiracy. It's just a matter of who's involved.

As we're seeing once again, Americans have an astonishing capacity to embrace myth and self-delusion and to ignore painful or inconvenient truths, even when it means going against their own self-interests. But you can't do that forever. The economy is a case in point. Your democracy is another. The latter is dead not with a bang or a whimper, but a 'Duh!'

You fought for nothing, Mr. Randolph. It's all gone.

Mr. Randolph,
Facts are indeed stubborn things. If you review my comments, you'll see that I never said that Bin Laden had no ties to Al Queida. I said that the FBI admitted it had no evidence that he was behind 9/11. He is on their 'most wanted' list, but on it there is no mention of 9/11. Please check for yourself. It is a matter of record.

That he was a CIA asset (as was the Muhajadeen) is not even in dispute. There is evidence he received treatment in a US military friendly hospital in Bahrain in 2000, and had visits from CIA operatives. There are Osama tapes that are comically fake.

I didn't say that planes didn't collide with the twin towers (although a missile, not a plane clearly attacked the Pentagon). The twin towers were designed to withstand multiple strikes from fully loaded 707s (the largest commercial plane at the time). The metaphor was a pencil piercing a screen door. There is local damage, but the structure maintains its overall integrity.

In order for the 'pancake' theory to hold true, one would have to suspend the laws of physics. The buildings came down at almost freefall speed, and Building Seven fell at slightly faster than freefall (because explosions in the basement caused a temporary partial vaccuum). The resistance of each succeeding floor in the 'pancake' theory would have resulted in a much slower collapse. Messier, too, but no pulverization. There's just no way around that. Or the molten metal, still yellow hot after months. Nothing can accomplish temperatures like that except explosives such as Thermate. You can see the squibs for yourself. And the long horizontal trajectories of tons of metal, not explainable in any other way. Or the pyroclastic dust clouds which occur only in volcanoes and controlled demolitions using high temperature explosives.

It matters not at all from what altitude bombs were dropped on Vietnamese civilians. The fact is, crimes against humanity were committed on a massive scale, as they continue to be in Afghanistan and Iraq (and maybe soon Iran). Your 'man of character' supports torture, indefinite imprisonment without trial, disappearences, and pre-emptive war. I recall others of such 'character', but not with any admiration.

Thanks for fighting for my freedom of speech. I bet you'd never have guessed that its erosion and near disappearance would come not from the Nazis or Communists, not from the 'terrorists' (everyone who doesn't cheer for Bush), but from your own United States. Looks like you wasted your time. Sorry.

You are so smart. This sums up my thoughts exactly. We have all come to rely on the government for too much, giving it the power to dictate too much of our lives. We have become like children, trading our independence for sustinence and shelter. Please don't mistake my meaning. I am not saying that every person has become dependent on the government, but we are all collectively responsible for allowing our government to become so intertwined with our lives.

My mom has a saying - "Never trust the man who comes to your door saying, "I'm here from the government and I'm here to help you." Somewhere along the line we lost sight of the fact that nothing comes for free and nothing worth anything comes easy. For quite some time, our politicians have managed to convince us that they have our best interests at heart and they want to do what is right. But, as you have mentioned in previous articles, it takes so much money to run a campaign these days that the politicians are either way more wealthy than the average person they will represent or already corrupted before they are elected to office. THEY have not lost sight of the fact that nothing is free. They know exactly what is expected for the large donations that are given to get them elected. Heck, the corporations nowadays even hedge their bets by giving to BOTH candidates in a race. These people have no idea what life is like for the rest of us. They have completely lost touch with life as the rest of us know it.

Your reference to Osama is right on the money too. It is completely naive to believe that he and others like him are not closely watching this race. I hope the candidate elected is one to give them pause.

Excellent read.

Thank you for this article. You're right to point out that our own greed is the only weapon many of our enemies need against us. I think it's also our own apathy and instinctive willingness to prefer to blame someone else for our problems. Unfortunately, our enemies will hate us no matter what we do ... so we might as well do the right thing, knowing that nothing will ever be good enough for them.

Everybody wants to end this war, especially John McCain. Despite what the self-proclaimed enemies of America say, John McCain's character is an example of our American values at their best. (Watch for jeers and insults to come in response.) It's no wonder that our enemies are afraid of it, just as they admit they are. We The People have an important choice to make, and I agree with you completely that the choice is between charisma and character. I also completely agree with you that John McCain has the better character. By a million miles, IMO. I also agree with you that an Obama presidency would give our enemies the upper hand ... which is why they prefer Obama. This world will not be more safe if we simply crawl away in defeat, thinking that nobody in a cave can harm us. That's foolish.

I can hardly believe the gutters that the enemies of character will wallow in. I was boorishly taunted in public just yesterday by an Obama supporter. I've experienced a lot of that, usually from an angry mob of Obama's supporters. I was even accosted by an Obama supporter while at the RNC convention. The level of disrespect and rudeness and aggressiveness toward those who disagree with the left wing is astounding to me.

Maya Angelou said, "When you knew better, you did better."

That's what I believe we always have an opportunity to do. Obviously, a lot of people are waiting for us to fail. Unfortunately, there is no doubt that we will be less safe as a nation if Obama wins the election.

God bless America.